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TALKS  WITH  MY  BOYS. 


BY 


WILLIAM  A.  MOWRY,  A.  M.,  PH.D., 

Fob  Twenty  Tears  Senior  Principal  of  the  English 

AND  Classical  School,  Providence,  R.  I., 

NOW  Editor  of  "Education." 


REVISED      EDITION. 


BOSTON : 
EOBEETS    BROTHEES. 

1886. 


COPTHIGHT   BT 

WILLIAM  A.    MOWRT, 
1885. 


ST4Tf  HORmi  $mf)\ 
1(537 


DEDICATION. 


ryO  the  three  thousand  boys  whom  I  have  had  the 
-*  pleasure  of  calling  "my  pupils"  during  the 
last  thirty-eight  years,  especially  to  the  two  thou- 
sand who,  within  the  past  twenty-three  years,  have 
been  members  of  The  English  and  Classical  'School, 
Providence,  R.  I.,  —  of  all  of  whom  I  have  the 
most  pleasant  recollections,  and  to  all  of  whom, 
scattered,  as  they  are,  over  the  whole  world,  I 
desire  to  extend  the  most  cordial  and  friendly 
greeting,  —  this  little  book  is  respectfully  dedicated 
by  their  friend, 

WILLIAM  A.  MOWRY. 


[ill] 


PREFACE. 


THIS  little  volume  has  grown  out  of  the  practical 
necessities  of  the  school-room.  During  the 
past  twenty  years  daily  contact,  with  from  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  boys  has  often  brought 
the  opportunity,  and  sometimes  the  necessity,  for 
special  moral  and  pi-actical  lessons  not  found  in 
the  regular  lines  of  study. 

It  has  been  the  author's  intention,  whenever  these 
occasions  have  presented  themselves,  to  frame 
truth  in  such  a  setting  as  to  make  it  attractive  and 
effective.  There  is  a  way  of  presenting  a  subject 
which  obscures,  confuses,  and  repels,  utterly  failing 
to  win  or  convince;  and  there  is  another  method 
which  is  agreeable  and  attractive,  and  which  seldom 
fails  to  produce  the  desired  effect.  The  occasion 
has  much  to  do  with  the  choice  of  the  subject,  and 
the  circumstances  largely  govern  the  form  of  pres- 
entation. 

[V] 


VI  PREFACE. 

Ko  logical  order  or  philosophical  arrangement, 
and  no  special  range  of  subjects  has  been  followed, 
since  the  talks  were  given  as  occasion  demanded  or 
opportunity  offered. 

Young  people  excel  in  drawing  inferences,  and, 
ordinarily,  there  is  little  need  to  append  to  a  story, 
after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  moralists,  —  Hoec 
fabula  docet. 

Some  of  these  talks  have  appeared  from  time  to 
time  in  The  Journal  of  Education,  several  of  them 
in  The  Congregationalist,  and  two  or  three  others 
in  different  publications ;  the  remainder  have  never 
before  been  printed. 

■  Should  the  book  aid  any  teacher  in  his  efforts  to 
present  truth  effectively  to  the  young,  especially 
should  it  serve  to  encourage  any  of  the  pupils  in 
the  schools. to  seek  a  higher  life  and  a  nobler  ambi- 
tion, the  writer  will  feel  amply  repaid  for  his  labor. 

W.  A.  M. 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  Jan.  1, 1886. 


CONTENTS. 


PACT 

I.    Concentration  of  Mind 9 

*"     II.    Concentration:  How  to  acquire  it    .  16 

X  III.    A  Purpose  in  Life 25 

iV.    "Black  the  Heels  of  your  Boots"   .  35 

Y.    Dogs  and  Boys 41 

YI.    Elements  of  Success 57 

VII.    What  shall  Boys  do? 69 

VIII.    President    Garfield's   Election    and 

Death 81 

IX.    President    Garfield's    Election    and 

Death,  Concluded   ......  88 

X.    What  the  Waterfalls  said  to  me    .    .  98 

XI.    Be  Exact  in  Thought  and  Word    .    .  113 

XII.    The  Basket  of  Chip-Dirt     ....  120 

XIII.    Wendell  Phillips:  The  Lesson  of  his 

Life 127 

[vii] 


Vm  CONTENTS. 

PAQK 

XIV.    The  Phonograph 137 

XV.    The  Two  Portraits 142 

XVI.    The  Election  of  President  ...     .     .  148 

XVII.     What  do  the  Boys  read?     ....  163 

XVIII.    The  Presidents  of  the  United  States  170 
XIX.    Facts  and  Dates  in  the    Lives  of 

Distinguished  Men 180 

XX.    Two  Yankee  Boys 189 

■    XXI.    The  Boyhood  of  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott  199 

XXII.    Practical  Christianity 206 

XXIII.  Habits  of  Industry 210 

XXIV.  A  Lesson  from  History 227 

XXV.     What  Geometry  will  do  for  a  Boy    .  243 

XXVI.    The  Fall  of  Richmond 250 

XXVII.    The  End  of  the  Year.— A  Christ- 
mas Scene    ........  259 


TALKS  WITH  MY  BOYS. 


I. 

CONCENTKATION   OF  MIND. 

"I  T  is  snowing  this  morning,  for  the  first 
time  this  fall.  That  is  a  reminder 
that  winter,  with  its  long  evenings  and 
keen,  bracing  air,  is  near  at  hand.  This 
is  the  season  for  hard  study.  Now,  I  have 
something  to  suggest  to  you,  this  morning, 
boys.  Of  late  I  have  often  heard  some  of 
you  say,  "  I  cannot  get  my  lessons ;  they 
are  too  hard ;  they  take  too  much  time ; 
I  have  to  study  three  and  four  hours  out 
of  school."  In  these  cases  I  have  observed 
what  these  lessons  were,  and  have  gener- 
ally been  satisfied  that  they  were  not  too 
long  nor  too  difficult.  In  most  instances  the 
[9] 


10  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

same  lessons  were  well  learned  by  some 
members  of  the  class,  without  unusual  or 
unreasonable  hours  of  study.  I  wish  to 
tell  you,  therefore,  how  you  may  get  these 
lessons  without  spending  too  much  time  in 
studying  them. 

It  is  related  of  a  distinguished  man,  one 
of  the  first  scholars  of  America  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  that,  when  he  was  fitting  for  col- 
lege, he  found  himself  spending  two  hours 
a  day  in  preparing  his  Latin  lesson.  He 
determined  that  he  would  get  that  lesson  in 
an  hour  and  fifty  minutes.  The  next  day, 
and  subsequent  days,  when  he  sat  down  to 
learn  his  Latin,  he  bent  every  energy  to 
accomplish  it  in  the  shortest  possible  time. 
He  found  by  daily  trials  that  he  was  getting 
it  in  an  hour  and  forty-five  minutes,  and 
that  the  time  required  was  growing  daily  a 
little  less.  Concentrating  all  his  powers 
upon  the  task,  day  by  day,  he  soon  found 


CONCENTRATION    OF    MIND.  11 

himself  spending  only  an  kour  and  a  half 
upon  it,  then  fifteen  minutes  less,  and  soon 
mastering  it  in  an  hour;  and,  continuing  his 
efforts,  within  a  few  months  the  daily  lesson 
could  be  learned  in  less  than  half  an  hour  !  a 
thing  absolutely  impossible  with  his  habits 
of  study  at  the  beginning  of  his  efforts. 
But,  meantime,  he  had  done  something 
more  than  to  get  his  Latin  lesson  daily  in 
a  shorter  period  of  time.  He  had  acquired 
a  different  habit  of  study.  He  had  learned 
something  of  the  value  of  i\iQ  power  of  con- 
centration. His  philosophical  mind  formu- 
lated it  in  this  way :  "  The  acquisition  of 
power  is  of  more  value  than  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge.'^ 

Many  years  ago,  in  Northern  Massachu- 
setts, a  young  lad  of  about  fifteen  years  had 
acquired  such  a  habit  of  intense  concentra- 
tion of  mind  that  he  won  a  boyish  wager 
with    some    of    his    school-fellows    in   this 


12  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

way.  Seven  long  stanzas  of  poetry  were 
given  him  to  learn  in  twenty  minutes,  while 
the  boys  were  permitted  to  use  all  their 
efforts  to  disturb  and  disconcert  him,  except 
they  were  not  to  touch  him.  He  com- 
menced, and  they  kept  up  a  most  unearthly 
din  about  his  ears ;  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
He  was  totally  oblivious  to  anything  going 
on  around  him.  His  whole  mind. was  con- 
centrated upon  the  task  of  committing  to 
memory  those  verses,  and  before  the  twenty 
minutes  were  up  he  had  them  so  thoroughly 
fixed  that  he  could  recall  them  with  ease 
years  afterward.  This  lad  was  the  Hon. 
George  S.  Boutwell,  afterward  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  secretary  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Board  of  Education,  United  States 
senator,  and  secretary  of  the  United  States"^^ 
treasury. 

Horace    Greeley   was   remarkable  for  his 
power  of  concentration  of  mind.     It  is  stated 


CONCENTRATION    OF   MIND.  13 

that  when  an  immense  procession,  with  bands 
of  music,  was  passing  up  Broadway,  the 
streets  lined  with  people  to  the  number  of 
many  thousands,  he  would  sit  down  upon 
the  steps  of  the  Astor  House,  and,  using  the 
top  of  his  hat  for  a  writing-table,  he  would 
write  out  in  full  one  of  those  strong,  terse, 
pungent  editorials  which  rendered  the  Trib- 
une so  famous  during  his  palmy  days. 

I  have  heard  another  incident  in  relation 
to  his  power  of  writing  under  disturbing  cir- 
cumstances. An  article  in  the  paper  had 
given  great  offence  to  a  certain  gentleman, 
who  immediately  upon  reading  it  went 
straight  down  the  street,  and  calling  at  the 
office  of  the  Tribune^  inquired  for  the  ed- 
itor. He  was  shown  into  a  little  seven-by- 
line sanctum,  where  Mr.  Greeley  sat,  with 
his  head  down  close  to  his  paper,  scribbling 
away  at  a  two-forty  rate.  The  angry  man 
began   by  asking  if  this  was  Mr.  Greeley. 


14  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

"Yes,  sir.  What  do  j^ou  want?"  says  the 
editor,  quickly,  without  once  looking  up 
from  his  paper.  The  irate  visitor  then  be- 
gan to  use  his  tongue,  with  no  reference  to 
the  rules  of  propriety,  good  breeding,  or 
reason.  Meantime,  Mr.  Greelej"  continued 
to  write.  Page  after  page  was  dashed  off 
in  the  most  impetuous  style,  with  no  change 
of  features,  and  without  paying  the  slight- 
est attention  to  the  visitor.  Finally,  after 
about  twenty  minutes  of  the  most  impas- 
sioned scolding  ever  poured  out  in  an  edit- 
or's office,  the  angry  man  became  disgusted, 
and  abruptly  turned  and  walked  out  of  the 
room.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  Mr.  Greeley 
quickly  looked  up,  rose  from  his  chair,  and 
slapping  the  gentleman  familiarly  on  his 
shoulder,  in  a  pleasant  tone  of  voice  said : 
"Don't  go,  friend;  sit  down,  sit  down,  and 
free  your  mind  ;  it  will  do  you  good, — you 
will  feel  better  for  it.     Besides,  it  helps  me 


CONCENTRATION   OF   MIND.  15 

to  think  what  I  am  to  write  about.  Don't 
go." 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  near  the  close  of  his 
life,  said  to  a  friend,  "If  I  have  accom- 
plished anything  above  the  average  of  men, 
it  has  been  by  the  power  of  patient  work." 

If  your  school  proves  of  any  value  to  you, 
boys,  it  will  be,  not  by  giving  you  an  oppor- 
tunity to  acquire  knowledge,  but  to  acquire 
power  by  daily  labor.  And  this  will  come 
to  you  mainly  from  your  acquiring,  by  dint 
of  dogged  will  and  determination,  tJie  power 
of  concentration.  It  will  give  you  the  power 
to  do, — to  bring  it  to  pass, — which  will  be 
of  more  value  to  you  than  gold.  It  is  an 
indispensable  element  of  success. 

Remember,  then,  that  the  "  acquisition  of 
power  is  of  more  value  than  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge."  It  is  the  man  of  gi-eat  wis- 
dom who  says,  in  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
"Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  thy  might." 


16  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 


n. 

CONCENTEATION :  HOW  TO  ACQUIRE   IT. 

YTOU  have  shown  by  your  questions  that 
you  appreciate  the  value  and  the  neces- 
sity of  the  power  of  concentration  of  the 
mind,  but  some  of  you  fail  to  see  how  it 
can  be  secured.  We  shall  have  time  for 
but  a  few  of  the  questions  this  morning. 

Question  I.  —  "  Can  the  power  to  concen- 
trate the  mind  upon  one  subject  be  cultivated 
to  any  great  extent  ?  Do  not  different  per- 
sons differ  radically  by  nature  in  respect  to 
this  power  ?  " 

Question  II.  — "  How  can  the  power  to 
think  upon  one  subject,  to  the  exclusion  of 
irrelevant  thoughts,  be  acquired?  Is  not 
this  power  of  slow  growth  ?  " 


Los  A(f,/p:„. 

concentration:  how  to  acquire  it.     17 

Question  III.  —  "  Dear  Teacher  :  I  liked 
your  remarks  this  morning  about  the  power 
of  applying  our  minds  to  whatever  we  want 
to,  but  I  for  one  cannot  do  it.  I  have  tried 
again  and  again.  It  seems  to  me  we  are 
subject  to  fits  and  moods,  and  when  we  can 
we  can,  and  when  we  can't  we  can't,  and 
there  is  the  end  of  it.  At  any  rate,  that  is 
my  case. 

"Now,  last  Saturday,  I  wrote  my  essay 
nearly  all  at  one  sitting,  but  I  could  not  do 
it  again.  I  had  been  at  work  on  it  for  many 
days  and  had  accomplished  but  little.  Sat- 
urday I  was  going  away  with  Cyrus,  and, 
just  as  I  was  ready  to  start,  he  came  over  to 
say  that  his  brother  had  come,  and  therefore 
he  could  not  go.  So,  having  nothing  else 
to  do,  I  sat  down  to  try  my  essay.  The 
thoughts  came  faster  than  I  could  write  them 
down,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  I  had  it  nearly 
finished.     True,  I  had  to  prune  and  trim  it 

2 


18  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOTS. 

afterwards,  and,  of  course,  I  am  not  vain 
enough  to  suppose  that  the  thoughts  after 
all  were  worth  anything.  The  paper  had  no 
particular  merit,  but  it  was  good  for  me.  It 
was  better  than  I  had  thought  I  could  do  ; 
better  than  I  could  have  done  by  any  ordi- 
nary process.  Now,  is  not  the  mind  sub- 
ject to  fits  and  moods  ?  and  when  the  mood 
is  on  we  can  succeed,  but  if  it  is  not  on  we 
work  in  vain.  Thomas." 

These  three  questions  represent  nearly  all 
I  have  received.  If  I  can  answer  them 
satisfactorily,  I  am  sure  you  will  find  the 
time  well  spent. 

Let  us  take  the  third  first.  Yes,  the  mind 
is  subject  to  fits  and  moods  ;  but  we  can  cul- 
tivate the  moods.  We  can  train  the  mind  to 
work  or  not  to  work.  The  thing  for  us  to 
do  is  so  to  ti'ain  and  school  and  discipline 
the  mind  that  it  will  do  our  bidding.      In 


CONCENTRATION  :  HOW  TO  ACQUIRE  IT.   19 

other  words,  that  the  iviU  shall  govern  and 
control  all  the  powers.  You  will  observe 
that  when  Saturday  had  come  the  burden  of 
the  week's  lessons  was  oif.  Thomas's  mind 
was  free  and  elastic  ;  then,  when  Cyrus  could 
not  go,  nothing  was  left  for  Thomas  to  think 
about  but  that  essay.  The  circumstances 
were  favorable  to  the  entire  concentration  of 
the  mind's  powers.  The  case  illustrates,  at 
least,  that  when  the  mind  is  thus  concen- 
trated it  acts  with  far  greater  power  and 
success  than  otherwise.  The  question  that 
concerns  us  especially  is  how  to  secure  this 
power,  how  to  cultivate  the  habit. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  you  must  exer- 
cise the  full  power  of  the  will.  By  this  I 
mean  that  you  must  be  determined  to  bring 
it  to  pass.  A  student  who  cares  but  little 
whether  he  succeeds  or  not,  will  not  succeed. 
It  is  the  determination,  the  absolute  will- 
force,  that    finds    a  way  or   makes    a   way. 


20  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

You  A7ill  be  surprised,  by  a  little  practice, 
to  see  to  what  an  extent  this  power  may  be 
increased.     Try  it,  and  see  for  yourselves. 

2.  In  the  next  place  you  must  be  method- 
ical. Every  lesson  should  have  its  own  time. 
If  you  try  to  learn  your  algebra  or  your 
Greek  to-day  at  nine  o'clock,  and  to-morrow 
at  twelve,  and  the  next  day  at  three,  and  so 
on,  you  will  be  lifting  on  the  short  arm  of 
the  lever.  The  power,  then,  must  be  greater 
than  the  weight,  and,  in  this  case,  it  never 
is  so  ;  consequently,  the  lesson  is  not  learned. 
Have  a  set  time  every  day  for  the  same  les- 
son, and  adhere  to  it.  Then  again,  if  possi- 
ble, have  the  same  place  in  which  to  study, 
the  same  chair  to  sit  in,  and  the  same  desk, 
in  the  same  corner,  and  get  your  lesson  from 
the  same  book. 

3.  Learn  by  trial  what  circumstances  are 
favorable  and  what  unfavorable,  and,  turning 
aside  from  the  less  favorable,  put  yourself, 


CONCENTRATION  :  HOW  TO  ACQUIRE  IT.   21 

SO  far  as  practicable,  under  the  influence  of 
the  most  promising  conditions.  For  exam- 
ple, some  will  study  better  sitting,  others 
standing ;  some  in  the  morning  or  in  the 
evening;  some  alone,  others,  possibly,  in 
company ;  some  long  before  the  lesson  is  to 
be  recited,  others  immediately  before  the 
recitation ;  some  can  learn  faster  by  study- 
ing aloud,  others  in  the  most  perfect  silence  ; 
some  can  learn  mathematics  best  in  the  morn- 
ing, others  in  the  evening ;  some  take  their 
memory  studies  early  in  the  day,  some  later. 
Now,  whatever  moods  you  can  find  yourself 
subject  to,  cultivate  all  favorable  circum- 
stances. 

4.  Then,  if  you  are  committing  to  mem- 
ory, much  aid  is  found  in  writing  out  the 
points  to  be  remembered.  The  use  of  the 
pen  or  pencil  is  essential  in  fixing  thoughts 
in  the  mind. 

5.  Learn   efiectually,   I    pray  you,   the 


22  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

secret  of  self-dependence.  Do  not  lean  upon 
any  one.  Stand  erect  by  your  own  power. 
Whatever  lesson  you  have  to  learn,  rely 
upon  yourself,  and  not  seek  the  aid  of  your 
sisters  or  aunts. 

The  true  office  of  education  is  to  discipline 
and  develop  the  powers  of  the  mind.  It  is 
to  give  power,  not  to  learn  facts ;  and  he 
who  has  learned  how  to  get  a  lesson  in  an 
hour  that  previously  had  taken  two  hours 
has  made  no  small  acquisition. 

One  of  the  greatest  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  a  course  of  school  training  is  in  acquir- 
ing the  power  to  bring  things  to  pass;  to 
secure  the  habit  of  accomplishing  your  under- 
takings. He  can  because  he  thinJcs  he  can, 
feels  sure  he  can,  has  learned  to  trust  in  him- 
self, believe  in  himself,  rely  upon  himself, 
is  the  true  translation  of  "  Possunt^  quia 
posse  videntur.'* 

It  is   related   of  two  monks  that  one  of 


CONCENTRATION  :    HOW  TO  ACQUIRE  IT.      23 

them  expressed  to  the  other  his  regrets  that 
he  could  not  say  his  prayers  without  his 
thoughts  wandering  to  other  topics.  His 
brother  thought  that  was  unnecessary.  He 
was  not  troubled  in  that  way. 

"  Are  n't  you  ?  "  said  the  other.  "  Well,  if 
you  will  recite  the  Pater  JVbster  without  har- 
boring any  thought  but  that  expressed  by 
the  words  of  the  prayer,  I  will  give  you 
my  horse." 

"Agreed,"  said  his  brother;  and,  sinking 
on  his  knees,  he  began  :  "  ^ Pater  noster,  qui 
es  in  coelis,  sanctificetur  nomen  tuum.'"  I 
wonder  if  he  will  give  me  the  saddle,  thought 
the  monk. 

"Ah,  brother,  I  was  mistaken;  I  trusted 
unwisely  in  my  own  powers.  I  cannot  do 
it." 

Nevertheless,  the  lesson  was  not  lost  ujion 
him,  but  applying  himself  to  the  task,  he 
soon  acquired  such  a  power  of  concentration 


24  TALKS   WITH   MY    BOYS. 

as  to  become  an  earnest,  devout  monk,  and 
finally  a  great  scholar  with  a  world-wide 
reputation.  Promptness,  punctuality,  de- 
termination, and  correct  habits  of  study  and 
work  will  give  you  the  victory. 


A  PURPOSE   IN   LIFE.  25 


ni. 

A  PURPOSE  IN  LIFE. 

T>ECENTLY  was  carried  to  the  grave  all 
that  remained  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  G. 
Arnold,  LL.  D.  He  was  the  author  of 
the  "  History  of  Rhode  Island,"  in  two  large 
octavo  volumes,  containing  nearly  six  hun- 
dred pages  each.  At  the  funeral  services 
addresses  were  made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Robinson, 
president  of  Brown  University,  Rev.  Dr. 
Caldwell,  formerly  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Hague,  who 
was  pastor  of  the  same  church  when  Dr. 
Arnold  was  a  boy.  I  desire  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  address  of  Dr.  Hague. 

"The   occasion   which   calls    us    together 
to-day   is   to   pay   love   and   honor  to    our 


26  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

departed  friend.  There  is  nothing  that  so 
touches  the  deepest  fountains  of  feeling  in 
our  nature,  and  calls  forth  from  all,  young 
and  old,  the  sentiment  of  genuine  sorrow 
as  an  occasion  like  this.  For  me  the  occa- 
sion, associated  as  it  is  with  remembrances 
of  a  dim  half-century,  and  taking  in  the 
scope  of  the  characteristics  of  his  boyhood, 
of  its  beginning  and  developments,  to  me 
it  is  bewildering.  My  first  knowledge  of 
my  departed  friend  was  in  the  year  1828, 
when  I,  a  student  from  a  theological  semi- 
nary, transferred  my  relations  to  Newton, 
and  when,  nine  years  after,  I  was  called 
to  this  pulpit,  our  life  friendship  began. 
lie  was  then  a  boy  of  sixteen  years  of  age, 
and  as  regular  an  attendant  on  worship  as 
any  member  of  the  church.  He  was  then 
strongly  intellectual,  and  could  discuss  any 
topic,  and  often  used  to  speak  to  me  about 
my  sermons.     What   interested  me  in  him 


A   PURPOSE   IN   LIFE.  27 

at  that  time  was  the  prophecy  of  power,  a 
clear  ideal  already  formulated  of  what  he 
was  to  become.  At  the  age  of  seventeen 
he  was  perfectly  familiar  with  the  history 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  understood  her 
marine  interests,  and  could  elucidate  the 
questions  as  well  as  any  man  in  the  state. 
When  a  young  boy  his  plans  of  life  were 
formed,  for  his  love  for  his  state  prompted 
him  to  become  its  future  historian.  In  the 
ten  months  in  which  he  and  I  were  compan- 
ions in  Europe,  I  had  good  opportunities 
to  learn  his  character.  I  can  surely  say  of 
him  that  he  was  a  lovable  companion, 
praiseworthy  and  reliable.  Before  leaving 
home  he  was  troubled  with  malarial  fever, 
and  in  consequence  was  very  weak.  I 
have  often  said  to  him  when  he  was  writing, 
'Drop  your  pen  and  rest.'  But  he  would 
reply,  'I  cannot  rest  until  I  have  finished 
this  letter  to  my  mother.' 


28  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

"  There  was  another  secret  of  his  power : 
he  was  a  man  of  integrity,  with  a  large 
heart  and  a  noble  spirit.  After  his  return 
from  Europe  the  second  time,  he  devoted 
ten  years  of  his  life  to  labor  and  toil  in 
writing  the  history  of  his  state.  I  have 
only  to  say  to  you,  young  men  of  Provi- 
idence  here,  that  while  you  bid  farewell  to 
these  remains,  you  must  remember  that 
the  sources  of  his  power  were  recognized 
in  his  youth  and  in  his  boyhood.  And, 
although  a  distinguished  biographer  says 
that  it  is  a  characteristic  with  American 
youth  to  wander  aimlessly  along,  yet,  when 
we  think  of  our  deceased  friend,  we  can 
say  there  are  some  exceptions  ;  and  in  doing 
this  it  makes  our  souls  bound  with  joy,  for 
we  can  yet  think  there  is  still  some  hope 
for  our  future.  As  expressive  of  that  ideal 
which  our  friend  who  has  departed  realized, 
I  would  commend  to  the  attention  of  the 


A   PURl^OSE   IN   LIFE.  29 

young  men  here  present,  some  lines  with 
which  I  closed  the  second  centennial  histori- 
cal address  of  this  church  on  Nov.  7,  1839  : 

" '  Some  high  but  humble 

Enterprise  of  good  contemplate 

Till  it  shall  possess  thy  mind, . 

Become  thy  study,  pastime,  rest,  and  food, 

Bind  thy  whole  soul  to  this  thy  purpose, 

And  thou  an  angel's  happiness  may  know. 

May  bless  the  earth  while  in  the  world  above. 

The  good  begun  b}^  us  shall  onward  flow 

In  many  a  branching  stream,  and  wider  grow.'" 

What  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the  boy  that 
he  remembers  so  well  for  fifty  years ! 
Observe  what  he  says:  "A  boy  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  as  regular  an  attendant 
on  worship  as  any  member  of  the  church. 
.  .  .  "VYhat  interested  me  in  him  at  that  time 
was  the  prophecy  of  power,  a  clear  ideal 
already  formulated  of  what  he  was  to  become. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  was  familiar 
with   the   history   of  Rhode   Island,  under- 


30  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

stood  her  marine  interests,  and  could  eluci- 
date the  questions  as  well  as  any  man  in 
the  state.  When  a  young  hoy  his  plans  in 
life  were  formed. ^^  How  well  he  carried  out 
those  plans  ! 

And  is  it  true  that  "  it  is  a  characteristic 
with  American  youth  to  wander  aimlessly 
along  ^^f  If  so,  it  is  high  time  the  error  was 
corrected.  ^^  Aimlessly  I '^  "  Wander  aim- 
lessly I"  What,  with  no  purpose;  shifting  as 
the  wind,  ebbing  and  flowing  as  the  tide? 
Indeed,  I  greatly  fear  this  is  true  of  too 
many  "American  youth"  of  to-day. 

Dr.  Arnold  had  in  early  life  the  firm,  fixed 
purpose  to  write  the  history  of  his  native 
state,  —  a  state  small  in  area,  but  having  a 
history  of  importance  to  the  world.  He 
lived  to  carry  out  that  purpose,  and  the 
execution  of  his  plan  has  brought  great 
credit  to  himself  and  his  native  state. 

It  is  not  possil)le  for  every  boy  to  know  at 


A  PURPOSE    IN   LIFE.  31 

sixteen  just  what  particular  thing  he  is  to 
do  in  life,  but  every  one  ought  to  have  some 
purpose,  some  laudable  ambition,  some  high 
ideal,  and  then  strive  to  attain  to  it.  One  of 
your  number  asked  me  the  other  day,  if  I 
thought  every  young  man  could  become  what 
he  chose  to  be.  That  was  really  asking 
whether  the  old  adage  is  true,  "Where 
there  's  a  will  there 's  a  way."  Did  you  ever 
know  an  aphorism  of  the  ages  that  was  not 
based  on  a  deep  truth?  "Find  a  way  or 
make  a  way."  In  an  important  sense  the 
adage  is  true  ;  but  the  will  must  be  full,  thor- 
ough, complete.  It  must  permeate  every 
fiber  of  the  boy's  constitution.  It  must  be 
permanent  and  reliable.  It  must  not  be 
ephemeral,  superficial,  or  half-hearted.  It 
presupposes  some  knowledge  of  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way,  and  a  contempt  for 
them  as  difficulties.  The  means  are  essential 
to   secure  the  end.     We  cannot    sit  down, 


32  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

IVIicawber-like,  waiting  for  something  to 
turn  up,  to  put  us  in  the  place  we  wish  to 
occupy.  If  one  wishes  to  become  a  rich 
man,  he  must  make  up  his  mind  to  hard- 
labor,  early  and  late,  year  after  year,  till  the 
result  is  reached ;  he  must  earn  and  he  must 
save  every  penny  possible.  Read  the  life 
of  John  Jacob  Astor  or  Stephen  Girard,  if 
you  wish  to  learn  the  way  to  wealth.  Is  it 
your  ambition  to  be  learned,  or  eloquent,  or 
honored  ?  You  must  desire  it  with  all  your 
soul,  and  strive  for  it  as  for  dear  life ;  and 
you  must  not  get  discouraged  as  the  years 
pass  by.  But  you  must  have  that  kind  of 
an  ambition  which  will  admit  of  no  refusal ; 
it  must  be  discouraged  by  no  obstacles, 
thwarted  by  no  misfortunes,  weakened  by 
no  reverses.  That  kind  of  a  purpose  and 
perseverance  is  what  men  are  made  of.  I 
have  heard  it  stated  that  Lord  Beaconsfield 
in  his  boyhood  aspired  to  the  first  place  in 


A   PURPOSE    m   LITE.  33 

the  English  government,  and  so  he  attained 
it.  The  story  probably  has  no  truth  in  it, 
and  yet  has  underneath  it  a  truth  worth  more 
than  if  it  were  true.  You  need  have  no 
childish  wish  to  become  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  for  generally  he, who  strives 
after  the  place  will  never  get  it.  The  adage, 
"The  dark  horse  will  win,"  has  a  deal  of 
truth  in  it.  But  you  can  and  you  ought  to 
have  a  high  and  laudable  ambition  to  prepare 
yourself  for  manJiood,  and  for  the  duties 
which  manhood  shall  bring  to  you. 

Few  men,  perhaps,  like  Gov.  Arnold,  can 
form  so  definite  a  purpose  as  he  did  in  early 
life,  and  carry  it  out.  But  if  one  will  disci- 
pline his  mind  by  honor,  fidelity,  reliability, 
by  industry  and  perseverance  ;  if  he  can,  by 
mere  foi'ce  of  will,  learn  his  lessons  faith- 
fully day  by  day,  and  by  that  habit  of  indus- 
trious faithfulness  get  control  of  the  will,  so 
that  it  shall  do  his  bidding, — then,  indeed, 
3 


34  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

has  he  prepared  himself  for  success  in  what- 
ever field  circumstances,  over  which,  often, 
we  have  but  little  control,  shall  assign  him 
his  lot  and  task. 

To  guide  your  lives  aright,  remember  the 
following  apt  rules  which  have  come  down 
to  us  from  the  ages  :  — 

1.  ^^  Festina  lente.''^ 

2.  "  Whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth 
doing  well." 

3.  "Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  thy  might." 

4.  "Patience  and  perseverance  accomplish  won- 
ders." 

5.  "What  man  has  done,  man  can  do." 

6.  "  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed." 

7.  "  Never  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  can  be 
done  to-day." 

8.  "Providence  helps  those  who  help  them- 
selves." 

9.  "He  that  by  the  plow  would  thrive 

Himself  must  either  hold  or  drive." 

10.  "  E'ot  enjoyment  and  not  sorrow, 

Is  our  destined  end  or  way; 
But  to  act  that  each  to-morrow 
Find  us  farther  than  to-day," 


BLACK  THE  HEELS  OF  YOUK  BOOTS.   35 


IV. 

BLACK  THE  HEELS  OF  YOUR  BOOTS. 

/^NE  dajji^^wlien  I  was  in  college^  I  heard 
a  young  lady  say,  "I  don't  think  much 
of  college  fellows." 

To  my  query  as  to  the  grounds  of  so  sin- 
gular an  opinion,  she  replied, — 

"  They  do  not  black  the  heels  of  their 
boots." 

When  I  protested  that  that  charge  could 
not  be  true  of  them  all,  she  responded,  — 

"Oh,  no,  I  suppose  not ;  but  the  exception 
proves  the  rule.  I  have  noticed  that  most 
of  them  only  black  the  front  part  of  their 
boots  ;  and  they  like  reversible  collars  and 
cuffs." 

I  went  away  absorbed  in  a  brown  study. 


36  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

The  philosophy  of  these  reflections  seemed 
to  adjust  itself  in  the  form  of  two  queries  :  — 

1 .  Is  the  statement  true  ? 

2.  If  so,  what  of  it? 

The  second  query  appeared  to  be  of  the 
gi'eater  importance.  What  if  a  man  does 
not  black  the  heels  of  his  boots  ?  What  does 
it  indicate?  I  have  never  ceased  to  moral- 
ize upon  this  question.  What  sort  of  a  man 
is  he  who  does  not  black  the  heels  of  his 
boots  ?  What  is  the  moral  influence  of  "  re- 
versible cuffs  and  collars  "  ?  I  was  reminded 
of  the  old  story  that  the  Greeks,  in  building 
a  temple  for  worship,  took  as  great  pains  to 
finish  neatly  and  completely  all  those  parts 
of  the  temple  which  were  concealed  from 
human  eyes  as  those  plainly  in  sight  of  all 
men.  The  reason  assigned  was,  "  The  gods 
see  ever;y^'here." 

Indeed  !  is  that  true  ?  Do  the  gods  see 
everywhere  ?     Then  what  is  the  opinion  of 


BLACK  THE  HEELS  OF  YOUR  BOOTS.   37 

the  gods  concerning  "putty"  and  "varnish"? 
Do  these  hide  a  multitude  of  sins  fro7n  them; 
or  really  have  they  the  power  of  seeing  be- 
hind the  "putty"  and  "varnish"?  Can  God 
see  a  boy  playing  ball  in  a  back  yard  on 
Sunday,  in  spite  of  the  high  fence?  Does 
He  see  the  letters  that  a  merchant  writes  in 
his  office  on  Sunday  afternoon,  with  the  cur- 
tains down  and  the  blinds  closed  ?  Does  He 
see  where  stolen  goods  are  secreted  ? 

"  Man  looketh  on  the  outward  appearance, 
but  the  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart."  What 
does  this  mean  ?  What  is  the  extent  of  its 
significance  ?  What  is  the  limit  of  it  ?  How 
much  would  there  be  left  of  this  world  if  all 
the  putty  and  varnish  were  taken  out  of  it  ? 
Veneering  is  a  wonderful  art ;  but  then  it  is 
a  modern  art. 

A  statesman,  on  being  told  that  the  Em- 
press Eugenie  wore  paste  diamonds,  replied, 
"  That  is  consistent  with  the  character  of  the 


38  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

reign  of  her  husband,  Napoleon  HI."  Was 
that  true  ?  Is  this  an  age  of  shoddy  ?  Who 
invented  ^ocyl's,  as  used  under  the  fifth  mean- 
ing of  the  word  in  Webster's  dictionary,  viz., 
"  The  refuse  of  cotton  and  wool "  ?  How  rap- 
idly the  use  of  the  word  "shoddy"  has  in- 
creased within  twenty  years  ! 

What  is  the  meaning  of  Attlehoro  jewelry, 
gold  wash,  gold  plate,  fire  gilt,  nickel  silver, 
single  plate,  double  plate,  triple  plate,  sugar- 
coated,  wooden  hams,  wooden  shoe-pegs,  and 
wooden  oats,  straw  paper,  wood  paper?  Imi- 
tations, shams,  pretence,  appearances,  de- 
ceptions !  Split  peas  for  coffee,  turnips  for 
horse-radish,  sand  in  sugar,  glucose  in  mo- 
lasses, powdered  limestone  in  flour,  cotton 
sold  for  linen  and  for  silk !  What  inven- 
tions !  What  sagacity  in  man  !  How  our 
vocabulary,  even,  has  of  late  been  enriched ! 
Is  not  this  the  age  of  shoddy ;  the  period  of 
putty,  varnish,  and  veneering? 


BLACK  THE  HEELS  OF  YOUR  BOOTS.   39 

If  Dio2:ones  needed  a  candle  in  his  time  to 
aid  him  in  his  search  for  an  honest  man, 
surely  in  these  days  he  would  want  to  carry 
about  with  him  the  most  powerful  electric 
light  and  a  microscope.  But  does  it  pay? 
Does  it  pay  to  be  false  ?  "  An  honest  man  is 
the  noblest  work  of  God."  "  Honesty  is  the 
best  policy " ;  not  because  it  is  policy,  but 
because  it  is  honesty.  "Behold,  thou  de- 
sirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts,  and  in  the 
hidden  part  thou  shalt  make  me  to  know 
wisdom." 

All  who  have  made  human  life  a  study, 
know  full  well  that  truth,  honesty,  thorough- 
ness, the  solid  gold  of  conduct,  pay  infinitely 
better  than  sham,  shoddy,  and  simulation. 
It  is  very  plain  that  broadcloth  is  more  du- 
rable than  satinet,  and  that  hickory  makes  a 
better  mallet  than  soft  pine  or  poplar. 

My  young  friends,^  habits,  when  once  put 
on  and  worn  till  they  fit,  are  difficult  to  shake 


40  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

off.  When  cheating,  veneering,  exaggera- 
tion, varnishing,  pretence,  and  simulation 
have  once  acquired  common  usage,  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  cultivate  the  hardier 
virtues  of  honesty,  solidity,  and  downright 
truthfulness.  Beware  of  the  besfinnino-s  of 
evil.  The  first  lie  is  like  the  small  break  in 
the  dike.  Be  honest  through  and  through. 
Form  no  partnership  with  secret  sins.  Avoid 
cant  and  make-believe.  Be  ingenuous  and 
wholly  honest.  "Black  the  heels  of  your 
boots.'* 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  41 


V. 

DOGS  AND  BOYS. 

T\ID  you  ever  think  how  much  like  boys 
dogs  are?  Perhaps  you  think  they 
are  not  much  alike.  If  so,  it  may  be  only 
because  you  have  not  carefully  considered 
the  points  in  which  they  are  similar. 

Let  us,  then,  first  try  to  find  out  in  what 
ways  dogs  and  animals  generally  are  like 
boys  or  mankind. 

1.  In  the  first  place  dogs  have  the  facul- 
ties of  perception,  like  men.  They  smell, 
taste,  hear,  feel,  and  see  as  well  or  better 
than  any  of  us.  What  a  wonderfully  acute 
sense  of  smell  they  have !  A  friend  of 
mine  had  a  dog,  which  was  generally  con- 
fined at  home  when  the  master  went  down 


42  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

town,  but  one  day  he  broke  away  and  took 
the  scent,  looking  for  his  master.  He  fol- 
lowed him  by  a  circuitous  route,  through 
many  different  streets,  until  he  came  to  the 
building  where  the  master  was.  Here  he 
followed  him  up-stairs,  and  through  several 
rooms,  till  he  stopped  at  a  closed  door. 
When  this  door  was  opened  he  went  in  and 
found  his  master,  and  exhibited  great  joy 
at  his  success.  We  cannot,  for  a  moment, 
pretend  to  equal  the  dog  in  the  acuteness  of 
our  sense  of  smell.  And  what  a  keen, 
quick,  intelligent  eye  a  dog  has  ! 

2.  They  have  consciousness,  and  here 
we  must  include  attention  and  reflection  as 
well. 

3.  Then  they  are  endowed  with  mem- 
ory, which  faculty  closely  resembles  the 
same  attribute  in  mankind. 

These  three  sets  of  powers,  dogs  and  the 
higher   animals   generally   plainly   enjoy  in 


DOGS    AND   BOYS.  43 

common  with  human  beina-s.  No  aro^ument 
is  needed  to  prove  it.  It  is  not  usually 
denied. 

4.  But  they  have,  also,  the  reasoning 
faculty.  Many  remarkable  stories  are  told 
to  illustrate  this  statement.  Take  up  any 
book  of  anecdotes  of  dogs,  or  horses,  or 
elephants,  and  you  will  find  it  filled  with 
incidents  which  prove  that  these  animals 
reason,  and  that  they  reason  with  much 
force  and  sagacity.  I  have  time  to  give 
you  but  one  instance,  which  I  believe  has 
never  been  published. 

A  friend  of  mine  had  a  large,  shaggy 
dog,  of  native  breed.  One  day  this  dog 
accompanied  his  master  to  a  town  half  a 
dozen  miles  away.  On  his  return,  just  as 
they  entered  a  village  two  miles  from  home. 
Carlo  found  a  nice  bit  of  fresh  meat,  which 
had  probably  dropped  out  of  a  butcher's 
cart  9;S  it  passed  over  the  rough,  stony  road. 


44  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOYS. 

The  dog,  of  course,  picked  up  the  meat, 
and  carried  it  along  in  his  mouth.  But, 
now,  to  his  logical  powers  there  appeared  a 
difficulty.  He  must  soon  pass  through  the 
village,  where,  as  he  well  knew,  there 
lived  many  naughty,  unprincipled,  selfish, 
hungry  curs,  not  one  of  which  was  his  par- 
ticular friend.  These  hungry  dogs  would 
discover  his  prize,  and  would  at  once  be 
seized  with  an  uncontrollable  desire  to  pos- 
sess it.  They  would  all  join  in  an  attack 
upon  Carlo,  and,  in  defending  himself,  he 
would  be  obliged  to  drop  the  meat,  and 
some  lucky  fellow  would  immediately  snatch 
it  up  and  run  away  with  it.  At  any  rate, 
though  he  did  not  say  as  much,  these 
thoughts  appeared  to  run  through  Carlo's 
head,  and  he  at  once  acted  upon  them. 

As  he  passed  up  the  hill,  just  entering  the 
village,  he  found  by  the  roadside  a  large 
piece    of    heavy    wrapping     paper.      After 


DOGS    AND   BOYS.  45 

spreading  out  its  folds  with  his  paws,  he 
carefully  laid  upon  it  his  choice  piece  of 
meat,  folded  over  it  the  paper,  first  on  this 
side,  then  on  that,  and  then  taking  it  in  his 
mouth,  he  passed  quietly  through  the  vil- 
lage in  safety.  No  one  of  the  many  dogs 
he  chanced  to  meet  appeared  to  suspect  the 
precious  burden  he  carried ;  and  the  wag- 
ging of  his  tail,  after  leaving  the  village 
behind  him,  manifested  his  own  hearty 
appreciation  of  the  success  of  his  stratagem. 
5.  Need  I  stop  to  argue  the  question 
with  you,  that  dogs  have  imagination?  Is 
it  not  apparent  to  every  one.  Horses,  too, 
sometimes  fear  what  they  imagine  is  an 
evil  coming  upon  them,  more  than  a  real 
danger  which  seriously  threatens  them. 
You  may,  by  playing  upon  the  imagination 
of  these  faithful  animals,  deceive  them  and 
cause  them  to  fear  where  there  is  no  danger, 
but  only  the  suspicion  of  danger. 


46  TALKS   WITH   MY    BOYS. 

.6.  I  will  not  take  time  to  prove  that 
they  are  endowed  with  the  ordinary  pas- 
sions, and  appetites,  and  emotions,  and 
sensibilities  which  characterize  the  human 
species.  They  love  and  hate,  they  fear 
and  dread,  they  manifest  anger  and  revenge, 
and  often  are  skillful  in  inflicting  punish- 
ment upon  their  tormentors. 

We  must  conclude,  therefore,  that  the 
higher  orders  of  animals,  nearest  mankind, 
are  possessed  of  the  same  physical  nature, 
and  have  similar  intellectual  capacities. 
They  may,  perhaps,  be  considered  quite 
similar  to  the  human  race,  and  the  difier- 
ence  between  boys  and  dogs  may,  therefore, 
appear  to  be  rather  difficult  to  define  or  even 
to  discover. 

But  do  not  be  deceived.  Differences  do 
exist,  and  they  are  very  important  ones.  It 
IS  true  that  dogs  have  bodies,  with  feet,  and 
eyes,   and  cars ;    they  have  minds  and  can 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  47 

perceive,  remember,  and  reason.  The  intel- 
lectual difference  would  appear  one  of  de- 
cree rather  than  of  kind.  Yet  one  essential 
point  of  distinction  is  found  just  here. 

1 .  Whatever  man  learns  he  may  transfer- 
or transmit  to  the  next  generation.  Brutes 
cannot.  If  one  invent  a  steam  engine  or  a 
telephone,  he  can  transmit  the  knowledge 
thus  gained  to  those  who  come  after,  so  that 
no  one  need  waste  time  and  thought  in  again 
inventing  the  same  thing.  Not  so  the  dog. 
He  can  never  transfer  or  transmit  to  another 
what  he  has  learned.  There  may  be  an 
intellectual  difference  in  dogs  or  horses,  but 
it  is  one  of  degree  rather  than  of  kind. 
"Blood  will  tell"  in  the  lower  orders,  as  in 
man.  The  differences  in  breeds  are  as 
marked  and  as  clearly,  manifest  in  animals 
as  are  families  and  races  among  mankind. 
But  nothing  can  be  found  to  contradict  the 
statement  made  above,  that   brutes   cannot 


48  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

transmit  intelligence.  If  a  dog  is  taught  a 
trick,  his  descendants  must  be  taught  it  in 
just  the  same  way. 

2,  But  the  great,  the  essential  difference 
between  the  highest  type  of  the  brutes  and 
the  lowest  man  is  the  following :  Man  every- 
where has  a  conscience,  the  brute  has  none. 
Man  alone,  of  all  the  animal  creation,  is  en- 
dowed with  the  moral  sense.  That  moral 
sense  is  conscience. 

But  you  say,  "Animals  have  this  moral 
sense." 

"Do  they?" 

"  Oh,  yes  ;  I  have  a  dog  that  always  shows 
it  when  he  has  done  wrong.  He  will  look 
sheepish,  and  show  plainly  that  he  knows  he 
has  done  ^vTong,  and  expects  a  whipping. 
Then,  when  he  is  whipped,  he  will  come  up 
so  penitently  and  lick  your  hand,  as  much  as 
to  sa}'",  'I  am  very  sony,  and  won't  do  it 
again.' " 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  49 

"Let  us  examine  the  case  a  little.  What 
does  he  do  ?  Give  an  example  of  his  wrong 
doing." 

"  Oh,  well,  for  instance,  he  will  steal  meat, 
when  he  can,  and  run  away  with  it." 

"  You  have  whipped  him  for  it  repeatedly, 
I  suppose?" 

"Yes,  I  have." 

"Well,  let  me  suggest  a  change  in  your 
programme.  You  whip  him  for  not  stealing 
when  he  has  a  chance,  and  when  he  does 
steal  praise  him,  and  pat  him  on  the  head, 
and  call  him  a  good  dog.  Soon  he  will  learn 
that  you  want  him  to  steal,  and  expect  him 
to  do  it.  Then,  when  he  has  stolen  a  bit  of 
meat  he  will  bring  it  to  you  and  wag  his  tail, 
expecting  to  be  praised  for  his  smartness. 
He  will  very  soon  forget  that  it  is  wrong  to 
steal." 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  he  learns 
readily  whether  you  wish  and  expect  him  to 

4 


50  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

steal  or  not.  He  does  wh.it  he  knows  you 
wish  and  expect  him  to  do.  It  is  the  whip- 
ping or  the  praise  <hat  he  is  looking  for. 
He  has  no  idea  of  the  risjht  and  Avrong  in  the 
case.  This  is  shown  conclusively  in  this 
way :  There  is  no  uniformity  in  the  case  of 
all  dogs  by  which  they  are  impelled  to  show 
apparent  guilt  or  innocence,  in  every  case, 
for  some  particular  act,  irrespective  of  pre- 
vious training.  That  is,  they  may  at  any 
time  be  taught  to  look  for  a  whipping  for 
doing  any  particular  act,  in  which  case  they 
will  slink  away  looking  guilty ;  or  they  may 
be  taught  to  expect  to  be  praised,  in  which 
case  they  will  appear  to  have  done  a  right 
and  acceptable  thing,  and  will  expect  to  be 
commended  for  it,  because  they  have  re- 
ceived commendation  before  for  the  same 
act.  They  appeared  guilty  in  the  other  case 
simply  because  a  whipping  had  hitherto  fol- 
lowed  the  act   they  had  now  done.     Their 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  51 

highest  idea  of  right  and  wrong  was  simply 
rewards  and  punishmeats  as  an  expected 
sequence  of  the  act  performed. 

But  what  is  conscience?  Various  defini- 
tions of  this  faculty  have  been  given,  and  I 
suspect  very  erroneous  ideas  prevail  exten- 
sively as  to  its  oflflce  and  functions.  Many 
suppose  conscience  tells  us  what  is  rigid; 
but,  unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  this  fac- 
ulty has  no  power  whatever  to  answer  the 
question,  "What  is  right?"  or  the  other 
question,  "  What  is  wrong?  "  We  determine 
what  is  right  or  what  is  wrong  by  judgment, 
our  reason,  our  prejudices,  our  early  educa- 
tion, and  in  various  other  ways.  Conscience 
tells  us  two  things  :  — 

1.  There  is  a  moral  character  to  voluntary 
actions.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  right  and 
there  is  a  wrong.  Some  things  (if  we  only 
knew  what)  are  morally  right,  and  otner 
things  are  morally  wrong ;  and  this  in  the 
very  nature  of  things. 


52  TALKS   WITH   IVIY   BOYS. 

2.  There  is  a  moral  responsibiUti/.  We 
ought  to  do  the  right  (when  we  have  found 
out  what  is  right),  and  we  ought  to  avoid 
the  wrong.  It  is  the  sense  of  "  oughtness," 
as  Joseph  Cook  calls  it.  We  have  this  fac- 
ulty to  tell  us  that  voluntary  actions  have  a 
moral  character ;  not  to  tell  us  what  the 
moral  character  of  a  particular  act  is,  but 
that  it  has  a  character,  either  right  or  wrong, 
and  that  when  we  have  found  out  what  this 
character  is,  we  should  then  act  accordingly. 
If  it  is  right  we  should  do  it ;  if  it  is  wrong 
we  should  not  do  it.  Besides,  conscience 
does  one  more  thing  for  us  : 

3.  It  approves  us  when  we  have  done 
what  we  believe  to  be  right,  and  it  condemns 
us  when  we  have  done  what  we  believe  to  be 
wi^ng. 

Accept  this  definition  of  conscience,  and  it 
is  always  infallible.  The  great  mistake  is  in 
supposing  that  conscience  tells   us  what  is 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  53 

rigid.  A  little  thought  will,  I  think,  con- 
vince any  one  that  people  are  much  influenced 
in  respect  to  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong 
by  their  early  training,  by  their  surround- 
ings, by  what  others  in  whom  they  confide 
believe  to  be  right  or  wrong.  But  in  their 
best  estate  and  condition  their  true  guide 
should  be  the  dictates  of  their  reason  and 
judgment.  In  fact,  the  reason  and  judgment 
are  given  us  to  investigate,  weigh  the  evi- 
dence, and  determine  the  moral  character  of 
every  act.  Then,  when  these  faculties  have 
pronounced  upon  the  quality  of  an  act,  the 
conscience  steps  up  and  says  (if  it  be  a  good 
act) ,  "  Do  it,  do  it ;  you  ougJit  to  "  ;  but  if 
it  is  pronounced  wrong,  then,  "Do  not  do  it ; 
you  ought  not  to."  When  conscience  has 
been  obeyed  it  approves  us,  when  violated 
it  condemns  us. 

It  follows,  without  saying,  that  we  should 
exercise   the   utmost   care  to  learn  what  is 


54  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS, 

right.  We  are  too  often  influenced  by  preju- 
dice and  preconceived  notions  and  biases. 
When  we  do  not  and  cannot  know,  we  ac- 
cept the  dictum  of  parents  and  teachers,  and 
other  friends,  in  whose  judgment  we  have 
confidence.  But  whenever  it  is  possible  for 
us  to  do  so,  we  ought  to  examine,  investi- 
gate, exercise  our  reason,  our  judgment, 
"prove  all  things,"  and  then  " hold  fast  that 
which  is  good."  I  suppose  I  must  add,  that 
in  many  things  we  are  all  more  or  less  influ- 
enced (especially  women)  in  determining 
what  is  right  or  wrong  by  an  intuition, 
which  is  not  easily  accounted  for.  And  it 
is  often  found  that  the  moral  instincts  are 
quite  as  reliable  as  the  most  profound  con- 
victions evolved  from  the  careful  utterances 
of  reason.  It  is  often  said  that  in  matters  of 
conscience  the  first  thought  is  the  best  and 
should  be  followed,  but  the  second  in  mat- 
ters of  judgment.     The  obvious  explanation 


DOGS   AND   BOYS.  55 

of  this  is  that  our  reason  is  so  easily  warped 
and  twisted  by  our  desires,  that  we  are  apt 
to  bring  the  judgment  to  coincide  with  our 
wishes.  Hence,  the  old  adage,  "The  wish 
is  father  to  the  thought." 

There  are,  then,  two  important  points  of 
difference  between  dogs  and  boys,  or  be- 
tween animals  and  men.  But  they  are  vital 
points.  They  make  the  diflference  heaven- 
wide  ;  they  unfold  for  mankind  an  endless 
series  of  progressive  movements  onward 
and  upward ;  discoveries,  inventions,  accu- 
mulation of  knowledge  and  wisdom,  and  ad- 
vancement limitless  and  measureless.  They 
reveal  to  us,  through  conscience  and  its 
moral  responsibility,  an  immortality  of  end- 
less happiness  within  our  reach,  if  we  will 
but  put  forth  the  hand  and  grasp  it. 

Measure,  then,  if  you  can,  the  vast  differ- 
ence between  the  highest  brute  and  the  low- 
est man.  Then  attempt  to  span  the  gulf 
which   separates  that  lowest  man,  the  most 


56  TALKS    WITH    MY   BOYS. 

ignorant  and  degraded,  from  the  highest  and 
noblest  specimens  of  our  race.  Who  can 
bridge  the  chasm?  Who  can  adequately 
conceive  the  contrast?  Who  can  possibly 
estimate  the  great  distance,  in  this  life  or  in 
the  life  to  come,  between  a  degraded  victim 
of  vice  and  crime  and  a  noble,  educated, 
cultivated  soul,  filled  with  all  good  motives, 
purposes,  and  actions? 

When  we  consider,  therefore,  that  we  are 
the  architects  of  our  own  fortunes  ;  that  the 
future,  for  time  and  eternity,  is  to  be  shaped 
by  our  own  conduct ;  that  here  we  are  on 
probation,  in  a  state  of  trial ;  that  all  possi- 
bilities are  within  our  reach ;  that  even  our 
powers  of  greatness  and  goodness  are  prac- 
tically limitless  ;  that  "  where  there  is  a  will 
there  is  a  way,"  how  strongly  should  it 
stimulate  us  to  the  putting  forth  of  our  best 
powers  to  achieve  all  that  is  within  our 
reach,  to  elevate  ourselves  in  the  scale  of 
humanity  to  the  highest  possible  point ! 


ELEMENTS    OF   SUCCESS.  57 


VI. 

ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS. 

T   BELIEVE  it  was  Dr.  Young,  the  cele- 
brated English  poet,  who  said,  — 

"  ITow  sad  a  sight  is  human  hai^piness!  " 

We  see  all  around  us  so  many  examples 
oi  failure  and  mixery  in  life,  that  when  a 
clear  case  of  prosperous  happiness  presents 
itself  the  contrast  is  painful,  and  we  are  led 
to  ask,  "What  are  the  causes?"  When  we 
do  see  a  marked  case  of  success,  we  instinc- 
tively inquire,  "AVhat  produced  that?" 

The  other  day  I  read  of  one  who  has,  of 
late  years,  been  well  known  in  this  commu- 
nity. He  was  brilliant,  talented,  cultured ; 
he  associated  with  people  of  refinement  and 
education ;  but,  alas  !  the  newspaper  report 


58  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

said  be  was  arrested  in  a  distant  city  and 
locked  up  as  a  street  beggar  and  vagrant ! 
Wbatdid  tbat?  Wby  sucb  a  failure?  He 
had  become  a  drunkard. 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  in  a  New  England 
college  were  two  young  men.  One  was 
poor,  working  bis  own  way  for  an  education, 
tbe  otber  was  tbe  son  of  one  of  tbe  noblest 
men  in  tbe  state,  wealtby,  and  an  uprigbt 
Cbristian  gentleman,  moving  in  tbe  best  so- 
ciety. His  son  was  ambitious  and  proud. 
He  would  pass  by  tbe  poor  young  man 
upon  tbe  college  campus  witbout  deigning 
him  any  recognition,  not  even  a  nod  of  tbe 
head. 

Twenty  years  went  by.  Tbe  rich  young 
man  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  tbe 
bar.  After  spending  some  years  in  a  dis- 
tant part  of  tbe  country,  be  returned  to  bis 
native  state  a  confirmed  drunkard.  One 
day  he  called   upon  bis  former  college  ac- 


ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  59 

quaintance  and  asked  for  three  dollars  to 
pay  his  bill  for  lodging,  that  he  might  not 
be  turned  out  into  the  street. 

His  friend  gave  him  the  money,  and  hoped 
he  would  put  it  to  a  good  use.  With  that 
money,  as  it  afterwards  appeared,  he  bought 
the  liquor  which  made  him  drunk ;  he  be- 
came noisy  and  boisterous,  got  into  a  street 
brawl,  was  arrested,  taken  to  the  lock-up, 
and  finally  sentenced  —  and  that  not  for  the 
first  time  —  to  six  months  at  the  house  of 
correction. 

But  how  much  more  satisfactory  to  fall  in 
with  incidents  of  the  opposite  character. 
Some  of  you  know  something  of  the  early 
life  of  James  A.  Garfield,  and  of  the  secret 
of  his  success. 

Few  men,  probably,  of  late  years  have 
had  a  nobler  reputation,  stood  higher  in 
their  profession,  or  fairer  before  the  world 
than   Admiral   Farragut,  whose   statue   has 


60  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

lately  been  unveiled  in  Washington.  Let 
me  read  you  a  little  incident  which  throws 
great  light  upon  his  career,  from  which  many 
lessons  may  be  drawn,  but  from  which  I  will 
only  ask  you  to  notice  the  underlying  prin- 
ciples which  brought  such  signal  success  to 
his  life  :  — 

ADMIRAL   FARRAGUT'S   CONVERSION. 

In  a  recent  conversation.  Admiral  Farra- 
gut  said  :  "  When  I  was  ten  years  of  age  I 
was  with  my  ftither  on  board  a  man-of-war. 
I  had  some  qualities  that  I  thought  made  a 
man  of  me.  I  could  swear  like  an  old  salt, 
could  drink  as  stiff  a  glass  of  grog  as  if  I 
had  doubled  Cape  Horn,  and  could  smoke 
like  a  locomotive.  I  was  great  at  cards, 
and  fond  of  gaming  in  every  shape.  At  the 
close  of  dinner  one  day,  my  father  turned 
everybody  out  of  the  cabin,  locked  the  door, 
and  said  to  me, — 


ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  61 

" '  David,  what  do  you  mean  to  be  ? ' 

"  '1  mean  to  follow  the  sea.' 

" '  Follow  the  sea  !  yes,  to  be  a  poor,  mis- 
erable, drunken  sailor  before  the  mast,  be 
kicked  and  cuffed  about  the  world,  and  die 
in  some  fever  hospital  in  a  foreign  clime.' 

"'No,'  said  I,  'I'll  tread  the  quarter-deck, 
and  command  as  you  do.' 

"'No,  David;  no  boy  ever  trod  the 
quarter-deck  with  such  principles  as  you 
have,  and  such  habits  as  you  exhibit. 
You  '11  have  to  change  your  whole  course  of 
life  if  you  ever  become  a  man.' 

"My  father  left  me,  and  went  on  deck. 
I  was  stunned  by  the  rebuke,  and  over- 
iv^helmed  with  mortification.  'A  poor,  mis- 
erable, drunken  sailor  before  the  mast !  be 
kicked  and  cuffed  about  the  world,  and  die 
in  some  fever  hospital ! '  That's  my  fate,  is 
it?  I'll  change  my  life,  and  change  it  at 
once.     I  will   never   utter  another   oath ;  I 


62  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOYS. 

will  never  drink  another  drop  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquor;  I  will  never  gamble.  I  have 
kept  these  three  vows  to  this  hour.  Shortly 
afterwards,  I  became  a  Christian.  That  act 
was  the  turning-point  in  my  destiny." 

Now,  my  young  friends,  what  underlies 
this  story?  What  do  you  discover  besides 
the  simple  narrative? 

As  I  read  this  incident,  and  re-read  it, 
and  pondered  upon  it,  a  profound  impres- 
sion of  its  hidden  meaning,  of  its  deep 
significance,  came  over  me.  I  could  "  read 
between  the  lines"  something  not  printed 
on  the  page.  I  saw  plainly  stated  three 
important  principles;  and  still  further  on 
three  more  were  discovered.  The  first  three 
were  the  fundamental  principles  of  success, 
the  foundation  upon  which  the  super- 
structure of  a  useful  and  prosperous  career 
was  builded.  The  second  three  were  like 
unto    them,    and  without    which    the    first 


5'AT£  NOBftiAl  SCHOOL,, 

ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  63 

would  have  been  rendered  null  and  void. 
I  read  (1)  that  Admiral  Farragut  had  a 
good  CHARACTER.  Ah !  boys,  character  is 
of  primary  importance.  We  can  none  of 
us  achieve  much,  worth  achieving,  without  a 
good  chaTacter;  that  which  can  be  depended 
on  in  an  emergency ;  that  which  is  pure  and 
bold,  and  true  and  good.  Then  (2)  I  no- 
tice in  his  life,  as  it  has  been  placed  before 
the  world,  that  Admiral  Farragut  had  real 
ABILITY, — intellect,  mind,  brains.  He  was 
no  ignorant  man.  He  was  no  common- 
place  man  in  his  mental  caliber.  He  had 
talent.  He  also  had  (3)  ambition.  He 
could  never  have  acquired  the  world-wide 
reputation  he  did,  without  a  high  and  noble 
ambitio7i.  He  proposed  to  accomplish 
something  worthy  in  life,  and  he  did.  Had 
he  not  had  a  laudable  ambition,  he  would 
never  have  made  such  a  brilliant  record. 
But  these  three  important  points  are  not 


\ 


64  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

the  only  ones  that  stand  out  in  his  life. 
Three  other  qualities  are  apparent.  It  is 
clear  that  -  Admiral  Farragut  could  never 
have  gained  his  remarkable  reputation  with- 
out hard  and  laborious  service.  He  had  the 
quality  of  (1)  industry.  He  improved  his 
opportunities.  He  became  familiar  with  all 
history  that  related  to  his  profession.  It 
is  related  of  him  that  during  a  year's  resi- 
dence in  Tunis,  our  consul,  Mr.  Charles 
Folsom,  directed  his  studies,  and  "gave  him 
a  thirst  for  information,"  which,  as  Mrs. 
Farragut  says  in  a  letter,  "  as  his  eyes  were 
not  strong,  kept  all  his  household  busy 
readinor  to  him."  His  knowledge  was 
varied,  and  in  matters  relating  to  his  pro- 
fession, profound.  He  was  one  of  the  best 
linguists  in  the  navy.  Success  comes  not 
from  chance,  or  from  talent  alone.  It  is 
won  by  fighting  for  it.  It  is  adiieved.  No 
great  thing  is  done,  no  great  prize  won,  no 


ELEMENTS    OF   SUCCESS.  65 

remarkable   success   attained,  without   hard 
icork. 

But  I  have  known  hard  workers  not  to  suc- 
ceed. I  have  in  mind  several  boys  of  my 
acquaintance  who  work  hard  enough.  They 
will  fire  up  like  a  rocket,  and  make  a  bluster 
and  a  sputtering,  and  go  off  with  a  whiz 
and  a  whir  which  you  would  think  sufficient 
to  move  the  world ;  but  soon  the  light  goes 
out  suddenly,  and  the  result  is  a  burnt  stick. 
They  are  at  work  to-day  on  one  thing  and 
to-morrow  on  another.  They  lack  (2)  per- 
severance.  Not  so,  however,  David  Farra- 
gut ;  he  had  not  only  industry,  but  he  had 
persistence ;  he  was  steady,  earnest,  perse- 
vering, year  in  and  year  out ;  he  worked  on 
quietly  and  faithfully,  till  he  had  risen  from 
midshipman  to  lieutenant,  commander,  cap- 
tain, and  rear  admiral.  Still  there  is  lacking 
one  other  element  to  his  success.  He  had 
labored  faithfully  and  perseveringly  for  many 


66  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

years,  and  had  acquired  no  great  reputation, 
no  fame.  He  had  not  made  a  great  name,  but 
he  had  (o)  patience  to  icait  for  the  results. 

The  war  finally  came,  and  he  was  .thrown 
into  actual  service.  He  could  now  exhil)it 
the  qualities  he  had  been  acquiring  during 
the  long  years  of  peace.  He  was  now  tried, 
and  was  not  found  wanting.  He  had  entered 
the  navy  before  he  was  ten  years  old,  yet  he 
was  past  sixty  when  he  found  the  opportunity 
to  distinguish  himself,  by  exhibiting  those 
qualities  and  that  breadth  of  judgment  which 
had  been  so  long  maturing.  Ah  !  my  young 
friends,  we  must  learn  to  be  patient,  and  to 
wait  for  results.  They  will  come  in  God's 
good  time.  Many  a  young  man  wants  to 
jump  at  one  bound  to  the  top  of  the  ladder ; 
yet  that  is  a  dangerous  experiment.  It  is 
better  to  climb  one  round  at  a  time,  and  the 
lono^er  the  ladder  the  higher  our  contuiued 
climbing  brings  us. 


ELE3IENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  67 

Now  Admiral  Farragut  had  (1)  character; 
(2)  ahilitij ;  (3)  ambition;  and  he  had  also 
(V)  industry  ;  (2) perseverance ;  (S) patience. 
He  won  great  distinction,  and,  since  there  was 
no  proper  rank  in  the  navy  for  him,  the 
gi'ade  of  Admiral  was  created  for  him  whose 
name  had  become  a  household  word  throu2:h- 
out  the  land.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  a 
Christian  gentleman,  and  mourned  by  the 
whole  nation.  In  battle  he  was  as  fearless 
as  Nelson,  in  public  virtue  and  patriotism 
not  excelled  by  the  gi-eatest  heroes  of  an- 
tiquity, while  in  his  spotless  purity  of  c7ia7'- 
acter  he  rivaled  the  illustrious  Collinsrvvood. 
There  are  many  naval  names  dear  to  the 
American  heart,  but 

"  A  brighter  name  must  dim  their  light 
With  more  than  noontide  ray, — 
The  viking  of  the  river-fight, 
The  conqueror  of  the  bay. 


68  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

Shape  not  for  him  the  marble  form, 

Let  never  bronze  be  cast, 
But  paint  him  in  the  battle-storm, 

Lashed  to  his  flag-ship's  mast." 

Let  me  assure  you,  one  and  all,  that  any 
young  man  to  whom  God  shall  give  life  and 
health,  if  he  display  these  six  attributes  in 
due  proportion  and  extent,  is  just  as  sure  of 
success  in  life  as  the  sun  is  to  rise  to-morrow 
morning. 

One  may  attain  fair  or  even  brilliant  suc- 
cess in  some  direction  without  a  harmonious 
development  of  all  six  of  these  attributes, 
although  it  is  by  no  means  sure.  But  one 
who  has  all  of  these  qualities  need  give  him- 
self no  uneasiness  as  to  results.  They  are 
certain ;  but  let  him  patiently  bide  the  time. 


WHAT   SHALL    BOYS    DO?  69 


VII. 

WHAT   SHALL  BOYS  DO? 

npHE  choice  of  a  profession  is  a  very  impor- 
tant  step  for  any  young  man.  But  that 
is  not  what  I  propose  to  speak  upon  at  this 
time.  It  is  necessary  to  go  back  of  that  and 
discuss  some  principles  which  underlie  and 
which  lead  up  to  the  choice  of  one's  vocation. 
In  one  of  these  "  new-fangled,"  modern  as- 
sociations the  executive  committee  is  divided 
into  several  working  subcommittees.  One 
of  these  subcommittees  is  called  the  "Out- 
look Committee."  It  is  their  business  to 
study  the  signs  of  the  times  and  see  what 
subjects  ought  to  be  brought  before  the 
society.  They  are  the  advance  guard,  the 
pickets,  the  videttes,  who  go  on  in  advance 


70  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

and  study  the  ground,  observe  the  "lay  of 
the  land,"  and,  like  Caleb  and  Joshua,  bring 
back  a  report  coupled  with  advice  whether 
to  so  forward  and  in  which  direction. 

So  with  us  this  morning ;  i  we  wish  to  look 
ahead  and  observe  the  condition  of  things, 
and  see  whether  it  is  best  to  scale  this  moun- 
tain, meander  like  the  river  through  this 
valley,  or  make  a  flank  movement  to  the 
right  or  to  the  left.  What  is  best  for  boys  to 
undertake  to  do  ? 

A  very  good  man  of  my  acquaintance 
really  believes  that  we  are  educating  the 
boys  too  much.  He  thinks  education  makes 
them  proud  and  unfits  them,  mentally  and 
physically,  for  icork.  I  suppose  he  would 
have  a  few  —  perhaps  children  of  the  best 
families  —  educated  to  fill  the  highest  places, 
but  the  mass  should  be  "  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,"  and  consequently  should 
not  be  educated  above  their  sphere. 


WHAT   SHALL   BOYS  DO?  71 

Col.  Lockett,  the  largest  cotton  planter 
in  Georgia,  said,  last  summer,  that  several 
years  ago  he  discovered  that  an  intelligent 
person  would  pick  more  cotton  in  a  day  and 
pick  it  better  than  an  ignorant  one.  In  his 
mind  great  results  grew  from  that  discovery. 
If  this  merely  mechanical  work  could  be 
done  better  by  intelligence,  then  everything 
else  could,  — hence,  it  follows  that  the  mass 
should  be  educated ;  the  prosperity  of  the 
state  requires  it.  ■  The  blacks  and  the  whites 
must  both  be  educated ;  therefore,  schools 
must  be  established  and  supported  for  both 
races.  This  is  a  far-reaching  inference,  but 
it  is  a  legitimate  one.) 

You  often  ask  yourselves,  "What  shall  I 
do  in  life  ?  What  shall  I  strive  to  fit  myself 
for  ?  What  hind  of  a  position  shall  I  seek  ?  " 
The  answer  must  inevitably  be,  "Do  your 
best.  Make  the  wosi  of  yourself.  Aim  high." 
It  was  Daniel  Webster  that  said  to  a  young 


72  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

man,  who  hesitated  to  prepare  to  euter  the 
legal  profession  because  it  was  so  crowded, 
"There  is  room  enough  up  higher."  And  I 
hope  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  Webster's 
answer  has  an  application  wider  than  the 
legal  profession.  "There  is  room  enough 
up  higher  "  in  every  distinct  business  of  life. 
What  the  world  needs  to-day  is  leaders, 
—  thoroughly  educated,  skilled,  competent 
leaders.  There  is  more  difficulty  in  securing 
one  first-class  superintendent  for  a  cotton  or 
woolen  mill  than  a  hundred  first-class  weav- 
ers or  spinners.  There  is  more  difficulty  in 
finding  a  first-class^  competent  "  boss  "  for  a 
gang  of  shovelers,  who  shall  direct  their 
work  skillfully  and  successfully,  than  in 
getting  the  entire  gang  of  men  to  shovel. 
A  few  years  ago  a  young  man  went  into  a 
cotton  factory  and  spent  a  year  in  learning 
the  work  in  the  carding-room.  He  then  de- 
voted another   year  to   the   spinning-room; 


WHAT   SHALL    BOYS   DO?  73 

still  another  in  learning  how  to  weave.  He 
boarded  with  the  overseer  of  one  of  these 
rooms,  and  was  often  asking  questions.  He 
picked  up  all  sorts  of  knowledge.  He  was 
educating  himself  in  a  good  school,  and  was 
destined  to  graduate  high  in  his  class.  He 
became  superintendent  of  a  small  mill,  at  a 
salary  of  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  He  was  sought  for  a  higher  place. 
It  happened  in  this  way :  One  of  the  large 
mills  in  Fall  River  was  running  behind-hand  ; 
instead  of  making  money,  the  corporation 
was  losing.  They  wanted  a  first-class  man 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  mill.  They  ap- 
plied to  a  gentleman  in  Boston,  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  leading  men  engaged  in 
the  manufacture  of  cotton.  He  told  them 
he  knew  of  a  young  man  that  would  suit 
them,  but  they  would  have  to  give  him  a 
good  salary. 

"  What  salary  will  he  require  ? '' 


74  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

'^  I  ctmnot  tell ;  but  I  think  you  "would 
have  to  pay  hhn  six  thousand  dollars  a  year," 

"  That  is  a  very  large  sum  ;  we  have  never 
paid  so  much." 

"No,  probably  not ;  and  you  have  never 
had  a  competent  man.  The  condition  of 
your  mill,  and  the  story  you  have  told  me 
to-day,  show  the  result.  I  do  not  think  he 
would  go  for  less.  I  should  not  advise  him 
to,  but  I  will  advise  him  to  accept  if  you 
offer  him  that  salary ;  and  I  think  he  will 
save  you  thirty  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  mak- 
ing your  goods." 

The  salary  was  offered,  the  man  accepted, 
and  he  saved  neavly  fo7't7/ per  cent  of  the  cost 
the  first  year.  Soon  he  had  a  call  from  one 
of  the  largest  corporations  in  New  England, 
with  whom  he  engaged  as  superintendent  for 
five  years,  at  a  salary  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year.  He  had  been  with  this  company 
only  about  one  year  before  he  had  an  offer 


WHAT   SHALL. BOYS   DO?  75 

of  another  position  with  a  salary  of  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  But  he  declined 
the  offer,  saying  that  he  had  engaged  where 
he  was  for  five  years,  and  he  should  not 
break  his  contract  even  for  five  thousand 
dollars  a  year  margin. 

Two  boys  were  in  thk  school  not  long 
since,  who  were  much  interested  in  railroad- 
ing. One  of  them  had  an  intelligent  ambi- 
tion, and  a  definite  plan  before  him.  He 
intended,  after  leaving  here,  to  take  a  full 
course  of  study  at  the  Columbia  College 
School  of  Mines,  and  he  fondly  hoped  some 
day  to  be  president  of  the  great  Southern 
Pacific  Railway.  He  may  succeed,  or  he 
may  fail  in  that  particular  hope  ;  but  I  have 
no  doubt  he  will  yet  distinguish  himself  as 
one  of  America's  great  railroad-men. 

The  other  was  infatuated  with  a  desire  to 
be  engaged  in  something  which  would  place 
him  on  a  railroad  train.     He  was  tired  of 


76  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

study,  and  had  apparently  no  desire  to  con- 
tinue in  school.  He  left  study,  and  ac- 
cepted a  position  as  brakeman  upon  a  freight 
train  upon  one  of  our  shortest  and  most  ob- 
scure railroads.  If  he  shall  look  for  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  business,  and  use  his 
best  efforts  to  make  himself  master  of  all  the 
details  of  railroading,  he  will  soon  rise  from 
this  undesirable  position  to  something  better, 
and  may  eventually  be  successful  and  gain  an 
excellent  position.  But  if  he  sits  down  con- 
tented as  a  brakeman  on  a  freight  train,  with 
no  plan  or  ambition  for  the  future,  very  few 
would  envy  him  his  position  or  his  prospects. 
What,  then,  shall  the  boys  do?  I  went 
down  to  Pettaconsett  the  other  day  to  see 
the  foundations  of  the  building  that  Mr. 
Corliss  is  putting  up  there  for  the  new 
pumping  engine  which  he  has  engaged  to 
put  in  for  this  city.*  I  found  that,  in  digging 
for  the  foundations,  they  came  upon  a  deep 

*  Providence. 


WHAT   SHALL   BOYS   DO?  77 

bed  of  quicksand.  Mr.  Corliss,  ever  fertile 
in  expedients  to  overcome  obstacles,  instead 
of  driving  down  wooden  piles,  sunk  in  this 
quicksand  great  quantities  of  large  cobble- 
stones. These  were  driven  down  into  the 
sand  with  tremendous  force  by  a  huge  iron 
ball  weighing  four  thousand  pounds.    I  said  : 

"Mr.  Corliss,  why  did  not  you  drive 
wooden  piles  on  which  to  build  your  foun- 
dation ?  " 

"Don't  you  see,"  said  he,  "that  the  piles 
liave  no  discretion,  and  that  the  cobble-stones 
have  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  I  understand  you,  Mr.  Cor- 
liss," was  my  reply. 

"If  you  drive  a  pile,"  said  he,  "tV  goes 
where  you  drive  it,  and  nowhere  else;  but  a 
cobble-stone  will  seek  the  softest  place  and 
go  where  it  is  most  needed.  It,  therefore, 
has  some  discretion,  and  bettor  answers  the 
purpose." 


78  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

I  went  away  musing  that  the  wooden 
"  piles  "  and  the  "  cobble-stones  "  represent 
two  classes  of  boys.  "The  piles,"  says  Mr. 
Corliss,  "have  no  discretion,  and  go  only 
where  they  are  driven."  I  think  I  have  seen 
boys  who  represented  this  quality.  "But 
the  cobble-stones  go  luhere  they  are  the  most 
needed."  When  boys  fit  themselves  to  go 
where  they  are  the  most  needed,  they  will 
be  pretty  likely  to  meet  with  tolerably  good 
success  in  life. 

In  the  olden  time  it  was  considered  enough 
for  a  boy  to  learn  a  trade.  He  then  had,  at 
least,  "  something  to  fall  back  upon."  Now- 
adays, if  a  boy  has  only  a  trade,  he  may 
prove  to  be  badly  off.  Some  morning  he 
may  wake  up  and  find  that  his  trade  is 
utterly  useless,  owing  to  the  genius  of  some 
inventor,  who  has  patented  a  machine  which 
will  do  his  work  at  a  tithe  of  the  previous 
cost,   and   in   a   tithe   of  the  previous   time 


WHAT   SHALL  BOYS   DO?  79 

required.  These  times  require  a  young  man 
to  be  so  intelligent  that  he  will  know  how  to 
do  business;  and  if  the  competition  in  one 
kind  of  business  is  too  great,  he  will  imme- 
diately and  literally  "  turn  his  hand  "  to  some 
other  occupation. 

Years  ago  one  machine  shop  made  engines, 
another  lathes,  another  guns,  another  sewing 
machines,  etc.,  and  no  two  of  them  could, 
by  any  possibility,  exchange  works.  Now, 
a  first-class  machine-shop  takes  a  contract  for 
making  a  large  lot  of  lathes ;  then  changes 
its  machinery  and  manufactures  a  hundred 
thousand  rifles  for  some  European  power ; 
then  contracts  to  make  as  many  sewing  ma- 
chines ;  then  commences  the  manufacture  of 
mowing  machines,  or  horse  rakes,  or  what- 
ever the  latest  and  most  successful  inventor 
wants  made. 

But  the  boy  needs  two  things,  and  to  suc- 
ceed  he   must  have    them :    (1)    He   must 


80  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOrS. 

have  an  ambition  to  do  his  best ;  (2)  He 
must  improve  his  mind,  and  prepare  himself 
to  have  such  "  discretion  "  as  will  enable  him 
to  "  go  where  he  is  most  needed."  A  man^ 
in  this  age,  should  not  be  a  machine,  nor  an 
adjunct  of  a  machine.  He  should  under- 
stand the  machine  that  he  is  to  run,  be  supe- 
rior to  it,  not  be  run  by  it,  but,  if  need  be, 
change  it  to  do  more,  or  better,  or  different 
work. 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  election.      81 


VIII. 

PRESIDENT    GARFIELD'S    ELECTION    AND 
DEATH. 

TT  is  just  one  year  to-day  *  since  Gen. 
Garfield  was  elected  President  by  the 
votes  of  the  electoral  colleges  in  the  various 
states.  That  was  a  momentous  day.  It 
was  one  of  the  sublimest  spectacles  the  sun 
ever  shone  upon.  If  a  sublimer  can  be 
found  it  was  that  which  preceded  it. 
Thirty-eight  states,  extending  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  lakes 
to  the  gulf,  had  upon  one  day  selected  by 
ballot  these  electors.  With  them  lay  the 
power  of  choosing  the  chief  magistrate  of 
a  great  nation  for  the  next  four  years. 
The  ruler  who  was  to  bear  sway  over  fifty 

*  Dec.  1, 1881. 


82  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 

million  people  was  elected  as  quietly  and 
with  as  little  excitement  as  the  most  com- 
monplace and  unimportant  afiair.  The 
several  colleges  of  electors  came  together, 
recorded  their  votes,  made  out  and  signed 
their  certificates,  sent  one  to  Washington 
by  mail,  placed  a  second  in  the  hands  of  a 
special  messenger  selected  by  themselves, 
gave  the  third  into  the  keeping  of  the 
United  States  District  Judge,  and  returned 
to  their  homes.  Their  stay  together  was 
not  necessarily  an  hour,  and  their  act  was 
really  but  an  executive  one,  or  possibly  it 
might  be  called  merely  a  clerical  one.  The 
people  had  pronounced  their  judgment,  and 
they  had  but  to  record  the  decision.  Yet 
how  sublime  their  duty  !  They  gave  forth 
their  votes,  which  selected  a  man  who  had 
risen  from  poverty  and  obscurity,  who  by 
his  own  powers  had  become  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  land ;  they  had  selected  him 


PRESIDENT    GARFIELD'S    ELECTION.  83 

and  placed  him  in  the  position  of  the  fore- 
most man  of  the  world.  He  now  was  to 
occupy  the  most  conspicuous  post  among 
the  rulers  of  the  nations ;  the  highest,  the 
most  enviable  position  among  men. 

Three  months  must  intervene  to  give  him 
time  to  mature  his  policy,  select  his  cabi- 
net, and  prepare  to  enter  upon  his  high  du- 
ties. Quickly  these  three  months  pass  by. 
Four  months  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties 
of  his  office  follow  them.  His  plans  and  his 
policy  foreshadowed  satisfy  the  people  to  a 
remarkable  degree.  Evidently  he  is  worthy 
the  place  which  he  is  called  to  fill,  and 
equal  to  the  duties  he  is  to  perform.  Famil- 
iar with  the  wants  of  the  country,  versed 
in  affairs  of  the  government,  vigorous  in 
thought,  decided  in  purpose,  bold  in  execu- 
tion, he  will  discharge  the  duties  of  his 
position  regardless  of  the  selfishness  of 
political    demagogues    and    shallow    place- 


84  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

seekers.  He  is  not  to  carry  on  the  govern- 
ment to  reward  friends,  nor  is  he  to  be 
deterred  by  fear  of  enemies. 

But,  alas!  "Man  proposes,  God  dis- 
poses." The  cowardly  assassin,  piqued 
because  not  appointed  to  the  position  he 
craves,  with  a  morbid  and  half-insane  desire 
to  win  notoriety  in  some  way,  yet  not  insane 
enouo;h  to  abridore  or  in  the  least  interfere 
with  his  moral  responsibility,  coming  up 
behind  him,  fires  the  fatal  shot  which  is  to 
cause  such  prolonged  sufiering,  and  finally 
the  death  of  our  good  President. 

Then  followed  an  experience  the  world 
had  never  before  received.  By  means  of 
the  telegraph  over  the  lands  and  under  the 
seas,  the  condition  of  the  sufiering  President 
became  the  household  talk  of  the  civilized 
world.  At  the  breakfast-table,  on  change, 
in  the  marts  of  travel,  the  tramway  carriage 
or  the   railway  coach ;  the  English  people, 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  election.      85 

the  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  Cossack, 
Turk,  or  Austrian ;  in  Jerusalem,  Mecca, 
Constantinople,  Paris,  London,  or  Berlin ; 
as  friend  met  friend,  the  first  salutation,  by 
common  impulse,  was,  "How  is  the  Presi- 
dent? Will  he  live?  God  grant  that  his 
life  may  be  spared  !  " 

Never  before,  probably,  in  the  history  of 
the  wide  world  was  there  manifested  by  all 
nations  so  general  a  sympathy,  such  cordial 
good-will,  such  earnest,  heartfelt  desires, 
from  Christian,  Jew,  or  Mohammedan,  that 
the  life  of  any  one  man  might  be  preserved, 
as  was  manifest  for  the  recovery  of  Presi- 
dent Gai-field.  Among  all  Christians,  not 
merely  in  this  land,  but  elsewhere,  wherever 
men  worship  the  one  God  and  implore 
blessings  through  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
prayers  were  sent  up  to  heaven  for  the  life 
of  Garfield.  No  such  unanimity  of  Chris- 
tian purpose  and  desire  was  ever  observed. 


8G  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

Many  raen,  good,  pious  souls,  trembled, 
being  weak  in  the  faith,  lest  God  should  not 
grant  a  favorable  answer  to  their  prayers ; 
and  so  the  infidel  would  scoff,  and  the 
unbeliever  taunt,  and  say,  "  What  good  in 
prayer  ?  " 

In  ancient  times  Uzzah  was  very  zealous 
for  the  safety  of  the  ark  of  God  :  — 

"And  when  they  came  to  Nachor's 
threshing  floor,  Uzzah  put  forth  his  hand 
and  took  hold  of  it,  for  the  oxen  shook  it. 
And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled 
against  Uzzah ;  and  God  smote  him  there 
for  his  error ;  and  there  he  died  by  the  ark 
of  God." 

These  good  people  were  very  much  afraid 
the  oxen  would  stumble  and  overturn  the 
ark.  They  must  put  forth  their  profane 
hands  lest  God's  ark  should  receive  injury. 
The  impulse  appears  good,  but  the  purpose 
is  neither  wise  nor  reverent. 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  election.      87 

God  knows..  Man  is  ignorant.  Let  God 
do  as  seemetLi  him  good.  This  should  be 
the  spirit  of  all  true  prayer.  In  an  age 
given  up  to  psychological  speculation  and 
material  philosophy,  is  it  to  be  supposed 
that  the  great  God  who  presides  over  all  the 
world,  and  who  rules  in  all  ages,  shall  bend 
his  purposes  to  suit  the  short-sighted  whims 
of  finite  man  ?  Yet  God  heard  every  prayer, 
and  his  answers  were  full  of  tender  love  and 
pitying  mercy. 

President  Garfield  died  Sept.  19,  after 
eleven  weeks  of  intense  pain  and  sufibring. 


88  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 


rx. 

PKESIDENT   GARFIELD'S  ELECTION  AND 
DEATH. 

1  FEW  days  after  President  Gai-field's 
death,  I  read  in  one  of  the  daily  papers 
—  a  paper  whose  circulation  is  not  broad,  and 
whose  management  is  scarcely  equal  to  its 
circulation  —  that  "  undoubtedly  the  death  of 
President  Garfield  would  prove  a  severe  blow 
to  the  Christian  religion."  The  same  day 
I  met  a  man,  a  lamplighter,  who  belonged 
to  that  denomination  of  Christians  of  which 
the  President  was  a  member.  Like  Presi- 
dent Gai-field,  also,  he  was  a  preacher.  He 
was  a  good  Christian  man,  modest  and  quiet 
in  his  work,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  regular 
minister  he  was  in  the  habit  of  conducting 
the  worship  in  the  little   chapel  which  had 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  death.         89 

the  words  "Church  of  Christ"  over  the 
door.  This  good  man  was  sincerely  lament- 
ing the  death  of  the  beloved  President. 
"Why,"  said  he,  "should  he  be  taken  who 
had  the  capacity  and  the  opportunity  in  his 
high  station '  and  with  his  good  heart  and 
brilliant  intellect  to  do  such  a  world  of  good, 
while  I,  who  am  nothing  and  can  do  nothing, 
am  kept  alive  ?  I  would  willingly  have  died 
in  his  place ;  but  he  has  been  taken  and  I 
am  left.  I  cannot  understand  it."  And  the 
tear  would  obtrude  itself,  and  did  trickle 
down  his  hard  cheek. 

I  left  him  and  walked  away  homeward, 
musing.  The  great  orb  of  the  sun  was 
gently  settling  down  towards  the  western 
hills ;  all  nature  was  quiet  and  contempla- 
tive. "Ah!"  thought  I,  "how  little  short- 
sighted man  can  comprehend  the  plans  of  the 
great  God  !  "  God  is  our  father,  we  are  his 
children.     We  may  always  rest  assured  that 


90  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOrS. 

he  is  ever  the  true,  loving,  kind,  and  wise 
Father  toward  us.  If  we  are  true,  loving, 
and  obedient  to  him,  and  trust  him  with 
filial  confidence,  then  all  right-motived  re- 
quests which  go  up  to  him  from  our  loving 
hearts  will  receive  careful  attention  from 
him  and  they  will  surely  be  answered.  But 
is  it  true  that  all  requests,  right-minded 
requests,  from  the  loving  and  obedient  child, 
which  are  well  received  by  the  parent,  and 
which  the  parent's  love  impels  him  to  respond 
to,  are  answered  always  in  the  very  terms  of 
the  petition?  And  if  not  thus  answered,  are 
they,  therefore,  not  answered  at  all?  Every 
one  will  say,  "  By  no  manner  of  means." 
The  child's  request  is  often  short-sighted,  the 
granting  of  which  by  the  parent  would  inevi- 
tably bring  pain  and  disaster.  Yet,  in  such 
cases  the  parent  may  hear  the  request  with 
pleasure,  approve  the  motive  that  prompted 
it,  and   though,  by  his  superior  knowledge 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  death.         91 

of  cause  and  effect,  prohibited  from  grant- 
ing it  specifically,  yet  he  may  show  in  a  far 
greater  degree  his  love  and  his  acceptance 
of  the  request  by  bestowing  another  and  a 
greater  blessing^  which  goes  further  and  does 
more  than  the  mere  granting  of  the  particular 
favor  asked  for  would  have  done. 

A  child  desires  a  small  sum  of  money, 
say  twenty-five  cents,  to  purchase  some  use- 
ful and  necessary  article  ;  he  knows  that  his 
father  has  just  that  amount  in  his  pocket. 
He  begs  that  the  father  shall  give  him  that 
particular  piece  of  money.  His  father  does 
not  at  once  answer  his  request.  He  repeat- 
edly importunes  him  for  the  gift.  The  father 
is  sensible  that  the  child's  object  is  a  good 
one  ;  his  request  is  moderate.  Had  he  asked 
for  a  much  larger  sum  the  father  would  not 
have  deemed  it  at  all  improper,  since  it  would 
have  been  paid  away  for  important  and  use- 
ful  articles.      But   the    father  finally   says, 


92  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

"No,  my  child,  for  good  reasons  I  cannot 
gi'ant  your  request."  Yet  within  a  short 
time  he  gives  him  a  five-dollar  gold  piece, 
saying,  "I  know  your  necessities,  and  you 
may  have  this  money  which  will  buy  what 
you  need.  The  quarter-dollar  which  you 
wanted  was  a  gift  to  me  from  a  dear  friend. 
I  did  not  want  to  part  with  it."  Can  any 
one  say  that  the  child's  request  was  not  cor- 
dially and  joyfully  received  by  the  parent, 
that  it  was  not  approved,  or  that  it  was  not 
granted  ?  He  wanted  the  money  for  what  it 
would  buy.  He  got  more  than  he  asked  for. 
He  thought  the  quarter-dollar  all  the  money 
the  father  had.  The  father  was  richer  than 
he  thought.  The  result  aimed  at  was  what 
the  money  would  buy.  The  result  was  at- 
tained solely  by  the  importunity  of  the  child. 
The  Christians  of  this  country  prayed  for 
the  life  of  President  Garfield,  because,  pri- 
marily, it  seemed  needful  for  the  country's 


PRESIDENT  Garfield's  death.         93 

well-being.  Has  not  God  in  a  remarkable 
manner  showered  his  blessings  upon  this 
country  and  the  world,  by  and  through  the 
death  of  the  beloved  President,  and  in  a 
manner  superior  to  and  beyond  anything 
that  Garfield  could  have  done  for  it  ?  And 
has  not  this  been  done  in  direct  answer  to 
the  loving  and  devout  spirit  of  prayer  which 
Christians  manifested  during  those  sad  weeks 
of  suspense?  Of  what  value  is  that  broad 
and  generous  sympathy  awakened  by  his 
assassination,  sickness,  and  death,  over  the 
wide  world  ?  It  is  of  more  force  than  stand- 
ing armies.  Its  power  is  superior  to  tons  of 
tracts  from  the  press  of  the  Peace  Society. 
It  has  accomplished  and  is  destined  to  accom- 
plish what  president's  messages  and  congres- 
sional action  and  diplomacy  could  never  have 
achieved.  The  ties  which  bind  the  nations 
together  have  been  strengthened  as  never 
before  by  all  human  instrumentalities. 


94  TALKS   WITH  JIT  BOYS. 

How  was  our  country  rent  by  political 
feuds  and  factions  1  How  have  they  been 
silenced,  and  in  fact  annihilated,  by  the 
dumb  lips  of  the  dead  President !  The  war 
of  the  Rebellion  left  gaping  wounds  and  sec- 
tional strifes  which,  as  it  has  appeared  during 
the  past  twenty  years,  ages  and  new  genera- 
tions of  men  only  could  heal.  The  "  South- 
ern policy"  of  President  Johnson  was  a 
failure ;  scarcely  less  so  was  that  of  Gen. 
Grant ;  and  not  much  more  could  be  said 
of  that  adopted  by  his  successor,  President 
Hayes.  What  might  have  been  done  by 
Garfield,  living,  we  cannot  know,  but  what 
has  been  done  by  him,  dead,  is  known  and 
read  of  all  men.  But  few  Northern  states 
voted  against  Gen.  Garfield  for  President, 
and  but  few  Southern  states  voted  for  him. 
Yet,  during  those  terrible  weeks  all  Northern 
people  and  papers  were  accustomed  to  speak 
of  him  as  ^^  the  President."    But  in  an  ex- 


PEESiDENT  Garfield's  death.         95 

tended  tour  through  the  Southern  states, 
while  President  Garfield  was  ^luifering,  I 
observed  everywhere,  from  newspapers  and 
people,  the  tenderest  expressions  about  ^^our 
President."  I  hazard  nothing  in  saying  that 
the  "  Answerer  of  prayer,"  He  who  is  prop- 
erly called  a  "  prayer-hearing  and  prayer- 
answering  God,"  has  heard  and  has  answered 
abundantly  the  prayer  of  his  people,  albeit 
in  a  way  they  had  not  dreamed  of;  though 
it  is  now  evident  to  all  that  the  answer  is 
far  more  advantageous  to  the  country  than 
the  simple  and  direct  granting  of  the  request 
would  have  been. 

And  now  what  answer  shall  we  make  to 
our  worthy  friend  and  brother,  the  lamp- 
lighter ?  Let  us  say  to  him  :  "  Dear  sir,  God 
lives  and  he  reigns.  He  doeth  Ins  will  and 
not  ours.  'For  my  thoughts  are  not  your 
thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my  ways, 
eaith  the  Lord.'     President  Garfield  in  his 


96  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

death,  through  the  kind  providence  of  our 
God,  as  we  sincerely  believe,  in  answer  to 
prayer,  has  accomplished  not  only  more  than 
in  his  life,  but  more  than  he  ever  could  have 
accomplished  by  the  longest  life  that  our 
good  wishes  could  have  assigned  to  him. 
And  as  for  thee,  thou  good  lamplighter, 
what  shouldst  thou  do  but  light  thy  lamps 
just  the  same  as  before.  'In  the  morning 
sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold 
not  thy  hand  ;  for  thou  knowest  not  whether 
shall  prosper,  either  this  or  that,  or  whether 
they  both  shall  be  alike  good.'  Light  thy 
lamps,  and  leave  not  one  in  darkness. 
How  knowest  thou  but  this  very  night  the 
liijht  thou  causest  to  stieam  out  from  some 
one  lamp,  over  the  highway,  may  prevent  an 
accident  and  thereby  save  the  life  of  some 
lad  who  in  the  after  years  will  be  a  man  of 
more  importance  to  this  land  and  the  world 
than  even  President  Garfield  was  ?     Do  not, 


PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD'S    DEATH.  97 

I  beseech  thee,  let  a  single  lamp  be  dim,  but 
bright  and  burning ;  and,  withal,  so  let  thy 
'light  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see 
thy  good  works  and  glorify  thy  Father  which 
is  in  Heaven.'" 

"  At  eventide  there  shall  be  light." 

"  God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 
His  wonders  to  perform." 


"  Blind  unbelief  is  sure  to  err, 
And  scan  his  work  in  vain; 
God  is  his  own  interpreter, 
And  he  will  make  it  plain." 


98  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOYS. 


X. 


WHAT   THE   WATERFALLS   SAID   TO   ME. 

"  Where  the  Falls  of  Minnehaha 
Flash  and  gleam  among  the  oak-trees, 
Laugh  and  leap  into  the  valley. 


Wayward  as  the  Minnehaha, 

With  her  moods  of  shade  and  sunshine." 

OO  sang  the  poet,  and  the  words  rang  in 

my  ears  day  after  day,  when  I  had  once 

seen  that  most  exquisite  picture 

"  Flash  and  gleam  among  the  oak-trees; 
Gleaming,  glancing  through  the  branches, 
With  her  moods  of  shade  and  sunshine, 
Minnehaha,  laughing  water." 

I  had  but  lately  gazed  upon  the  boiling 
torrents  of  the  Spokane,  enjoyed  the  turbu- 
lence of  the  Dalles  and  the  cascades  of  the 
Columbia,  and  marveled  at  the  bold  dash  of 
the  falls  of  the  Multnomah. 


■\\aiAT  THE  WATERFALLS  SAID  TO  ME.       99 

A  few  days  later  I  had  crossed  the  plain, 
pushed  through  the  forests,  rounded  the 
south  end  of  Lake  JNIichigan,  skirted  the 
shores  of  Erie,  stopped  to  drink  in  the 
gi'andeur  and  majesty  of  the  king  of  water- 
falls, Niagara,  plunged  down  the  rapids  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  still  later,  driving 
through  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  I  was  whirled 
along  the  banks  of  the  Deerfield,  rushing  and 
roaring  over  its  rocky  bed,  across  the  Con- 
necticut ;  and  the  iron  horse,  blowing,  wheez- 
ing, puffing,  lifted  me  up,  up,  the  valley  of 
the  Millers  River,  an  elevation  of  seven  hun- 
dred feet  between  Greenfield  and  Gardner. 
This  up-gi"ade  ride,  bumping,  turning,  twist- 
ing, now  on  the  right  bank,  now  on  the  left 
of  this  turbulent  stream,  was  in  the  night. 
The  moon  shone  brightly,  serenely,  weirdly, 
now  lighting  up  the  rapid  torrent,  and  anon, 
throwing  its  black,  dense  shadows  like  a  pall 
over  the  seething  mass. 


100  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 


YON  SILENT  MOON. 

That  silver  moon,  with  mellow  light  serene, 
Shines  through  the  clouds  with  tender,  modest  ray, 
As  if  't  would  hardly  venture  to  appear 
E'en  in  the  absence  of  the  orb  of  day. 
And  yet  it  shines;  and  peering  through  the  clouds 
It  sendeth  down  a  chastened,  loving  look, 
As  if,  indeed,  it  were  the  mourners'  friend, 
And  kindly  wished  to  bind  the  broken  heart. 

Wlien,  dense  and  thick,  the  clouds  have  gathered  o'er, 

And  all  is  dark  to  mourning  souls  below. 

The  moon  with  solemn  silence  peereth  through, 

And  seems  to  say,  "  There  's  light  for  you  above. 

The  earth  is  dark  and  full  of  troublous  sin. 

And  sin's  attendant,  sorrow,  walkethhere; 

But  courage  take^  and  look  away  from  earth, 

For,  far  above  terrestrial  clouds,  appears 

The  light  of  heaven,  which  shines  in  cloudless  sky, 

These  earthly  clouds  that  dim  the  light  of  day, 

And  oft  obscure  the  moon's  more  modest  look, 

Do  but  bespeak  the  heavenly  light  above, 

And  point  to  those  bright  realms  of  lasting  bliss." 

The  silver  moon  that  shines  with  borrowed  ray, 
Directs  the  soul  to  one  great  source  of  light; 
And  thus  from  earth  would  draw  the  mind  away, 
To  God,  the  only  source  of  light  and  love. 


WHAT  THE   WATERFALLS  SAID  TO  ME.      101 

Weary,  yet  restless,  I  could  not  sleep ; 
neither  could  I  keep  awake.  I  was  in  that 
half-way  condition  in  which  visions  come 
flitting  through  the  mind,  and,  the  reason 
asleep,  the  wide-awake  imagination  has  full 
play.  The  spirit  of  the  water  stood  up  be- 
fore me,  now  shrinking  and  bashful,  now 
boldly  riding  forth  upon  the  wings  of  the 
moonbeams,  and  began  to  talk  to  me.  At 
first  its  tones  were  quiet  and  gentle  as  the 
mild  zephyrs  of  the  summer  day,  but  gradu- 
ally increasing  the  power  and  decision  of  its 
utterances,  its  rapid  cadences  became  as 
fierce  and  tempestuous  as  the  hurricane  or 
the  tornado.  And  this  is  what  it  said  to 
me  :  — 

"  Have  you  no  pity  for  me,  O  man  ;  for  me, 
confined,  imprisoned  within  these  walls,  and 
made  to  drudge  and  drive  by  day  and  by 
night  without  cessation?  Who  ever  heard 
of  Millers  Eiver?    I  have  no  name,  no  fame, 


102  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

no  reward.  I  slave  and  drive,  and  hurry 
and  skurry,  and  get  no  thanks,  no  compli- 
ments. If  I  could  gather  up  my  waters  and 
make  a  bold  dash  like  the  Connecticut  at 
Holyoke,  pouring  over  the  great  dam,  or 
rushing  through  the  giant  wheel  which  drives 
so  many  thousand  spindles  and  throws  so 
many  hundred  shuttles,  it  would  be  of  some 
account ;  I  should  be  of  some  service.  Or, 
if  I  were  like  the  grand  old  falls  of  Niagara, 
captivating  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  ;  or  even  like  the  dashing  rapids  of  the 
Lachine,  over  which  the  steamboats  ride, 
guided  by  the  old  Indian  pilot,  amid  the 
wonder  of  the  many  passengers  !  But  no  ; 
I  must  remain  here  forever,  like  a  horse  in 
the  tread-mill ;  worse  than  that  even,  for  the 
poor  horse  is  allowed  to  stop  to  eat  and 
sleep,  but  I  must  go  on  morning,  noon,  and 
night,  — 


WHAT  THE  WATERFALLS  SAID  TO  ME.      103 

'  Never  stop  to  think, 
Never  stop  to  drink, 
Never  stop  to  weep, 
Never  stop  to  sleep,' 

but  always  working,  pushing,  crowding, 
surging,  ever  onward,  never  lagging,  and  so 
go  down  to  oblivion,  unappreciated,  uncared 
for,  unknown." 

Thus  the  waters  of  Millers  River  which 
tumble  down  seven  hundred  feet  from  Gard- 
ner —  the  highest  point  between  Boston  and 
Chicago  —  to  Greenfield,  entered  its  com- 
plaint and  exhibited  its  envy  of  the  Holyoke 
mill-dam,  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  the   falls  of  Niagara. 

Now,  while  I  thought  upon  this  complaint 
my  eyes  grew  dim,  my  head  drooped,  and  I 
was  rapidly  jostled  from  side  to  side,  till  grad- 
ually the  scene  changed,  and  I  was  no  longer 
on  Millers  Eiver,  but  was  quietly  seated 
upon  the   starboard   bow  of  the   steamboat, 


104  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

just  floating  into  the  very  jaws  of  the  La- 
chine  Rapids  upon  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Suddenly  the  water-sprite  stood  up  and 
shook  its  whitened  locks,  and  beckoned  me 
to  listen :  — 

"Pity  me,  traveler;  condole  with  me  in 
my  misery !  I  am  the  swelling  mass  of 
waters  from  the  great  lakes.  I  have  poured 
over  Niagara,  and  floated  down  through 
the  Thousand  Islands ;  and  now  I  must 
plunge  and  roar  and  foam  and  dash  against 
these  sunken  rocks  just  to  make  sport  for 
strangers  who  chance  to  come  down  the 
river  upon  these  steamboats.  Chained  to 
this  spot,  shut  up  in  this  channel,  confined 
between  these  grassy  banks,  I  must  work  on 
like  a  pack  horse,  day  in  and  day  out, 
doomed  to  perpetual  slavery.  If  I  could 
only  exchange  places  with  that  quiet,  unob- 
trusive ]\Iillers  Eiver,  or  if  I  could  be  like 
my  predecessor,  Niagara,  and  have  the  honor 


WHAT   THE   WATERFALLS   SAID   TO  ME.     105 

of  being  the  greatest  waterfall  in  the  world, 
I  should  be  happy.  But,  dear  me,  there  is 
no  place  for  me ;  no  success,  no  opportu- 
nity for  even  a  modest,  laudable  ambition." 

So  complained  the  Lachine  Rapids,  and 
vanished  in  thin  air,  or  sunk  beneath  the 
boiling  flood.  While  I  mused  upon  its 
plaintive  wail,  dream-like,  the  scene  changed, 
and  I  was  standing  on  the  bank  of  the 
Niagara  River,  just  below  the  American 
Falls.  A  low  wail  caught  my  ear,  and  on 
turning  around  I  saw,  just  rising  from  the 
water,  a  weird  and  haggard  form,  which  sent 
forth  a  dirge-like  moan  in  the  following 
words  :  — 

"Woe  is  me  I  Faint  and  weary,  torn  and 
bleeding,  behold  me,  a  prey  to  this  surging 
flood.  Very  fine  it  may  be  to  you,  good 
sir,  to  look  on  and  see  this  mighty  down- 
pouring  ;  but  not  so  interesting  is  it  to  poor 
me.      Pouring,    roaring,    seething,    tossing. 


106  TALKS  With  my  boys. 

plunging,  lunging,  here  I  am  shut  in  fi'om 
the  rest  of  the  world.  My  sisters,  there, 
above  me,  bask  in  the  sunshine,  and  leisurely 
float  along  day  after  day,  and  sleep  in  their 
quiet  eddies  at  night.  If  I  had  the  variety 
of  the  beautiful  and  picturesque  landscape 
of  the  quiet  Millers  River,  or  if  I  could 
rush  along  the  bed  of  the  Spokane,  or  if  I 
could  leap  down  an  immense  precipice  like 
the  falls  of  Multnomah,  I  should  be  satis- 
fied ;  but  here  I  am  compelled  to  heave  and 
toss,  and  plunge  and  roar,  from  January  to 
July,  and  from  July  to  December,  only  to 
repeat  again  and  again  the  same  round ; 
round  and  round,  over  and  over,  whirling, 
swirling,  fuming,  foaming,  rushing,  gushing, 
onward,  over  and  over,  till  I  vanish  in  the 
mist,  mocked  at  by  the  rainbow,  and  gone, 
because  I  am  not !  " 

So  complained  the  spirit  of  King  Kataract, 
and  wished  his  fate  was  anything  but   his 


WHAT  THE  WATERFALLS  SAID  TO  ME.     107 

own.  Suddenly  T  was  on  the  new  bridge 
that  spans  the  Spokane  Eiver,  in  Washington 
Territory",  just  over  the  boiling  torrent,  look- 
ing down  into  the  water  below.  The  mist 
was  rising  and  wrapping  itself  around  me. 
It  soon  shut  out  the  landscape,  and  a  voice 
sounded  in  my  ears  ;  it  was  hoarse  and  grim, 
and  I  was  startled,  till  I  looked,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  waters  was  beckoning  me,  and 
this  was  its  plaint :  — 

"  Would  that  I  were  elsewhere  !  Would 
that  I  were  otherwise  !  Would  that  I  were 
any  else  !  My  task  is  hard,  my  life  monot- 
onous, my  reward  but  small.  Could  I  but 
exchange  places  with  the  Dalles,  or  the  Cas- 
cades, or  the  Multnomah ;  but  this  monoto- 
nous life  will  be  the  death  of  me  yet !  " 

Just  then  a  loaded  team,  drawn  by  two 
braying  mules,  came  thundering  across  the 
bridge,  and  the  frightened  spirit  of  the  water 
was   no   more   seen.     Again,  I  was   at  the 


108  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  that  wondrous  piece 
of  nature's  handiwork,  and  again  the  water- 
spirit  complained.  While  I  looked  and  lis- 
tened, another  voice  was  heard,  this  time 
the  voice  of  the  Cascades,  when  in  the  midst 
of  its  complaint,  behold  the  falls  of  the  Mult- 
nomah !  It  was  a  little  river,  but  fifty  feet 
wide,  and  after  chasing  its  banks  along  a 
ravine  well  up  upon  the  mountains,  it  madly 
plunges  down  a  perpendicular  rock  eight 
Jiundred  feet,  only  to  gather  up  its  courage 
and  glide  down  another  cliff  several  hundred 
feet  more,  before  minsflino;  itself  with  the 
waters  of  the  Columbia.  It  is  indeed  a 
charming  waterfall,  unique,  beautiful,  pleas- 
ing in  every  particular,  both  in  itself  and  its 
surroundings.  Yet  here  I  found  the  same 
spirit  of  discontent.  The  mist  rose  from  the 
foot  of  the  falls,  and  wrapping  its  mantle 
about  itself,  it  assumed  the  form  which  had 
already  so  often  appeared  to  me,  and  thus  it 
spoke  :  — 


WHAT  THE  WATERFALLS   SAID  TO  ME.      109 

"Frightened,  benumbed,  exhausted  with 
incessant  labor,  I  have  no  peace  in  my  life. 
Could  I  exchange  places  with  my  sisters  or 
my  brothers  ;  could  I  once  visit  the  Spokane, 
or  ISiagara,  or  the  St.  Lawrence ;  could  I 
be  the  quiet  little  Minnehaha,  "Laughing 
Water,"  there  would  be  a  beam  of  joy  in  my 
soul !  But  no  such  good  fortune  awaits  me. 
I  am  doomed  to  drag  out  a  miserable  exist- 
ence in  this  damp  and  secluded  spot.  I  am 
half  tempted  to  commit  suicide." 

"  What !  "  said  I  to  myself,  "  is  there  no 
contentment?  Does  every  one  wish  to  ex- 
change places  with  some  one  else?  Have 
not  these  people  ever  read  '  The  Vision  of 
Mirza'?" 

Lo,  while  I  was  speaking,  another  water- 
fall appeared.  It  was  no  other  than  that 
which  had  started  my  fancy  at  first.  I  was 
sitting  upon  the  little  platform,  looking  upon 
the   "Laughing    Water."      Wisely   named; 


110  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS, 

beautiful  in  its  form,  harmonious  in  its  pro- 
portions, elegant  in  its  surroundings,  it  was, 
indeed,  a  model.  Cheerful  and  contented, 
it  displayed  a  true  happiness,  devoid  of 
onvy,  and,  innocent  of  impossible  ambitions, 
it  flowed  onward  in  its  quiet  and  beautiful 
harmony,  scarcely  inquiring  whence  it  came, 
or  whither  it  was  going. 

Only  after  I  had  twice  summoned  its 
spirit  into  my  presence,  did  it  quietly  and 
modestly  present  itself.  It  was  wrapped  in 
a  white  veil  of  spray,  and  girded  with  a  rain- 
bow about  its  waist.  Its  face  was  the  face 
of  beauty,  and  its  features  were  those  of 
quiet  contentment  and  happiness. 

"Callestthou  me?" 

"  Yes,  I  called  thee.  Now  tell  me,  I  pray 
thee,  how  it  is  thou  utterest  no  complaint?  " 

"Why  should  I  complain?  The  Father 
brought  me  here,  and  shall  he  not  do  right? 
In  beauty  he  made  me,  and  I  am  content  to 


^^'■^  ^"geks  Ca 
WHAT  THE  WATERFALLS   SAID  TO  ME.      Ill 

be  just  what  he  desires  me  to  be.  Whence 
I  came  I  know  not,  but  that  I  shall  go  on- 
ward to  the  great  and  boundless  ocean,  I  well 
know.  I  go,  contented  and  happy.  The 
duty  of  the  day  I  will  do.  Its  reward  is  in 
His  hands  ;  he  will  not  disappoint  me." 

"  Happy,  happy  spirit !  "  exclaimed  I,  "  not 
to  envy  its  fellows  ;  not  to  wish  for  impossi- 
ble things  !  " 

Here  I  heard  a  great  noise  and  a  confused 
hum  of  voices,  and  awaking,  I  found  that  the 
iron  horse  had  stopped  in  the  Fitchburg 
station,  in  Boston,  at  one  o'clock  at  night, 
and  the  passengers  were  leaving  the  train. 

So  I  knew  that  I  had  but  dreamed ;   and 

that  the  lesson  of  the  sleeping  hour  might 

not  be  lost,  I  have  here  written  it  out. 

"  He,  the  master  of  life,  descending, 
On  the  red  crags  of  the  quarry 
Stood  erect,  and  called  the  nations, 
Called  the  tribes  of  men  together. 
From  his  footprints  flowed  a  river, 


112  TALKS    WITH    MY   BOYS. 

Leaped  into  the  liglit  of  morning, 
O'er  the  precipice  plunging  downward, 
Gleamed  like  Ishkoodah,  the  comet; 
And  the  spirit,  stooping  earthward, 
With  his  finger  on  the  meadow 
Traced  a  winding  pathway  for  it, 
Saying  to  it,  '  Eun  in  this  wayl ' 

And  in  accents  like  the  sighing 
Of  the  south-wind  in  the  tree-tops. 
Said  he,  '  O  my  Hiawatha! 
All  your  prayers  are  heard  in  heaven; 
For  you  prayed  not  like  the  others, 
Not  for  greater  skill  in  hunting, 
Kot  for  greater  craft  in  fishing, 
Not  for  triumph  in  the  battle, 
Nor  renown  among  the  warriors.' " 


BE   EXACT   IN   THOUGHT   AND   WORD.       113 


XI. 

BE  EXACT  IN  THOUGHT  AND   WORD. 

T^HE  great  teacher  of  America  used  some- 
times to  say  to  his  pupils,  "Young 
gentlemen,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference 
between  doing  y^s^  right  and  a  little  wrong  "  . 

It  is  often  said  that  education  is  a  double 
work  :  it  includes  (1)  the  training  and  the 
disciplining  of  the  mind,  and  (2)  the  acqui- 
sition of  useful  knowledge.  The  former  is 
the  more  important  work,  and,  if  the  latter 
have  any  value  at  all,  the  knowledge  must 
necessarily  be  exact  knowledge. 

The   old   lady   felt   very  much   delighted 

when  she  found  a  recipe  by  which  she  could 

always  tell  the  good  indigo  from  the  poor. 

"  Take  a  lump  of  it,"  said  she,  "  and  put  it 

8 


114  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

in  water,  and  if  it  is  good  it  will — it  will  — 
it  will  sink  or  swim,  I  have  forgotten  which ; 
but  no  matter,  you  can  try  it  for  yourself 
any  time."  I  fear  a  great  deal  of  knowledge 
is  acquired  in  that  way,  and  it  is  just  good 
for  nothing. 

I  heard  a  man  telling  about  a  gentleman 
down  in  Maine  who  "  owned  one  hundred 
and  twelve,  or  three  hundred  and  twelve 
thousand  sheep,"  he  could  not  quite  remem- 
ber which ;  and  as  I  heard  his  doubt  I  began 
to  question  whether  it  was  not  "  one  hundred 
and  twelve  "  without  the  thousand. 

A  friend  of  mine  was  telling  of  a  voyage 
he  took  down  to  Newfoundland  in  a  fishing 
smack,  and  he  said  he  "saw  a  whale  fifty  feet 
long." 

"  Fifty  feet  long ! "  was  the  response  ; 
"  that  is  a  big  fish  story.  Do  you  expect  us 
to  believe  it  ?  " 

"  Why  not  ?    That  is  my  guess  ;  of  course 


BE   EXACT   IN   THOUGHT   AND   WORD.       115 

we  did  not  measure  him,  and  if  you  are 
going  to  guess  it  is  just  as  easy  to  guess  fifty 
feet  as  anything  else." 

I  fear  much  that  passes  for  knowledge  is 
onl}^  my  friend's  guess.  One  may  as  well 
"  guess  fifty  feet  as  anything  else." 

Now,  in  the  use  of  language  there  is  often 
a  lamentable  want  of  accuracy,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  legitimate  and  important  parts  of  the 
school  work  to  make  the  pupils  exact  in  the 
use  of  words.  The  accurate  use  of  "  shall  " 
and  "will,"  "should"  and  "would,"  is  so 
important  that  it  is  worth  spending  consider- 
able time  to  obtain  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  exact  distinctions  to  be  made  in  the  use 
of  these  little  auxiliaries.  ]\Irs.  Partington 
has  become  somewhat  notorious  for  her 
wrong  use  of  words,  or  use  of  wrong  words  ; 
and  the  colored  people  are  frequently  quoted 
as  making  ludicrous  blunders. 

But  the  fear  is  that  this  sort  of  inaccuracy 


116  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

is  not  confined  to  these  characters.  Mrs. 
Stowe,  in  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  makes 
"  Aunt  Chloe  "  tell  about  going  to  make  cake 
and  pastry  at  the  "  perfectioners  "  instead  of 
the  "  co7ifectioners."  And  John  B.  Gough 
tells  of  the  colored  preacher  who  was  desir- 
ous of  having  the  recess  back  of  the  pulpit 
"  frescoed,"  and  he  made  his  wish  known  to 
his  people  in  this  way :  One  Sunday  even- 
ins:  at  the  close  of  the  sermon  he  shut  the 
Bible  suddenly,  and  said,  "There,  my  bred- 
ren,  the  Gospel  will  not  be  dispensed  with 
any  more  from  dis  pulpit  till  the  collection 
am  sufiicient  to  fricassee  dis  abcess." 

How  often  we  hear  misquotations  from  the 
Bible  and  other  books  !  and  what  strange  pas- 
sages are  sometimes  quoted  from  the  sacred 
Scriptures  !  Many  persons,  well  versed  in 
Bible  lore,  are  yet  unable  to  repeat  the 
Lord's  Prayer  accurately.  I  found  a  painter 
some  years  since,   at  work  in  a  church  in 


BE   EXACT    IN   THOUGHT    AND   WORD.       117 

Boston,  out  on  the  Back  Bay,  painting  in 
elegant  letters  the  Lord's  Prayer  upon  the 
wall  of  the  church ;  and  the  form  of  words 
that  he  was  using  was  not  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible  or  the  prayer-book. 

This  habit  of  accuracy  is  an  important  ele- 
ment in  one's  education.  Knowledge,  to  be 
of  any  worth,  must  be  accurate ;  and  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  in  order  to  be  of 
value  as  a  disciplinary  process,  must  be 
equally  accurate.  Herein  lies  much  of  the 
value  of  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek.  It 
obliges  the  student  to  be  accurate  in  his 
study,  and  in  his  modes  of  thought.  The 
future  indicative  and  the  present  subjunc- 
tive of  the  third  conjugation,  in  Latin,  are 
to  be  carefully  discriminated,  since  the 
change  of  a  single  word  will  alter  the  entire 
-  jueaning  of  the  sentence.  The  study  of  the 
exact  force  of  the  subjunctive  mood  in  Latin 
is  a  matter  of  no  slight  importance  to  the 


118  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

boy  as  a  disciplinary  process.  It  is  training 
the  mind,  improving  the  reasoning  powers, 
sharpening  the  intellect,  and  acquiring  accu- 
racy of  judgment.  The  application  of  this 
may  be  made  in  a  horse  trade,  in  testing  the 
quality  of  cotton,  in  buying  wool,  or  in  put- 
ting up  a  physician's  prescription. 

This  constant  striving  after  accuracy 
greatly  improves  the  power  of  memory ; 
and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  importance  of 
this  faculty  has  been  seriously  underrated 
by  many  of  our  teachers,  and  multitutles  of 
scholars.  "  Whatever  is  worth  doins;  at  all 
is  worth  doing  well."  Herein  lies  a  large 
part  of  the  value  of  an  education.  Many  a 
man  inquires,  "  What  good  will  these  few 
pages  of  history,  or  this  study  of  algebra  or 
geometry,  do  my  son  ?  He  will  never  use  it 
in  my  business." 

Ah !  there,  my  friend,  is  just  where  you 
make  a  mistake.     The  accuracy  with  which 


BE    EXACT   IN   THOUGHT   AND   WORD.       119 

those  history  lessons  are  learned,  the  clear- 
ness of  perception  and  reasoning  acquired  by 
those  problems  in  algebra  or  those  proposi- 
tions in  geometry,  will  give  your  son  accu- 
racy in  whatever  he  will  have  to  do  in  life,  no 
matter  what  his  business  may  be.  If  "  thor- 
oughness "  and  "  accuracy  "  are  your  watch- 
words in  the  school  days,  you  will  never  for- 
get them  afterward.  But  if  you  are  careless 
and  inaccurate  at  school,  it  will  be  found 
hard  work  to  reform  subsequently. 


120        TALKS  WITH  MY  BOYS. 


xn. 

THE  BASKET  OF  CHIP-DIRT. 

TT7E  have  had  frequent  talks,  first  and  last, 
upon  the  subject  of  "What  Boys  should 
read."  There  is  at  this  day  such  an  abun- 
dance of  good  reading  matter  that  no  one  has 
any  excuse  for  indulging  in  objectionable 
reading.  The  presses  of  our  enterprising 
publishers  teem  with  good  books,  well  writ- 
ten, often  beautifully  illustrated ;  books  of 
travel,  adventure,  biography,  science,  and 
the  like ;  and  so  cheap  that  few  need  be 
debarred  the  privilege  of  owning  at  least  a 
few  choice  ones.  The  libraries  are  full  of 
them,  and  most  of  you  can  get  them  from 
the  public  library,  the  Christian  Association 
library,  and  other  collections.  Moreover, 
there  are  now  many  juvenile  periodicals,  like 


THE    BASKET    OF    CHIP-DIRT.  121 

the  YoutNs  Companion^  St.  Nicholas^  etc., 
which  furnish  weekly  or  monthly  the  best  of 
reading  admirably  adapted  to  the  young.  I 
think,  therefore,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
excuse  for  feeding  on  husks. 

The  following  incident  illustrates  the  evil 
effects  of  pernicious  reading.  I  do  not  sup- 
pose it  occurred  in  this  city,  but  I  cannot 
justly  say  about  that.  The  scene  of  the  in- 
cident is  supposed  to  be  at  the  family  fire- 
side;  the  time,  "early  candle-lighting,"  The 
persons  introduced  are  father  and  son. 

"Charles,  come  here.  What  is  the  mean- 
ing of  such  a  report  as  this  ? " 

Heport  of  Charles  M.  Smith,  for  term  end- 
ing Nov,  27,  1884.  Arithmetic,  57;  Geog- 
raphy, 69;  English  Grammar,  43;  Reading ^ 
85;  Spelling,  71;  Writing ^  70;  Average, 
66.  Deportment,  72;  General  Standing, 
69.  Whole  number  in  Class,  19;  Rank  in 
Class,  19. 


122  TALKS   WITH   JIY   BOYS. 

"No.  19  in  class  of  nineteen.  Foot  of  the 
class  !  Well,  well.  That  is  my  boy  Charlie, 
is  it  ?     How  did  this  happen  ?  " 

"I  don't  know,  sir." 

"Don't  know,  sir!  Who  does  know? 
When  you  first  entered  the  Everett  School, 
a  year  ago  last  September,  you  ranked  No.  3 
in  a  class  of  thirty.  The  next  term  you  were 
No.  6,  in  the  spring  No.  10,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  year  you  stood  No.  14  in  a  class  of 
twenty-four ;  and  now  you  come  home  with 
this  report.  No.  19  in  a  class  of  nineteen. 
Well,  where  will  you  be  next  term?" 

"  I  mean  to  do  better  next  term,  sir." 

"Well,  but  just  explain  how  this  has  come 
about." 

"I  can't,  sir." 

"  You  can't  I  Has  the  teacher  marked  you 
unfairly?" 

"I  think  not,  sir." 

"Does  he  show  partiality?" 


THE   BASKET   OF   CHIP-DIRT.  123 

"I  don't  think  so,  sir. 

"Well,  then,  how  is  it  that  you  are  at  the 
foot  of  the  class?" 

"I  can't  tell,  sir." 

"Can't  tell,  /can  tell  you,  Charles.  Do 
you  see  that  basket  filled  with  apples  ?  " 

"I  do,  sir." 

"Empty  out  the  apples  upon  the  floor,  in 
the  corner  of  the  room." 

"I  've  done  it,  sir." 

"  Now  take  the  basket  out  to  the  wood-pile 
and  fill  it  half  full  of  fine  chip-dirt." 

"Here  it  is,  sir." 

"Now  put  in  the  apples." 

Charles  piled  on  the  apples  till  the  basket 
would  hold  no  more. 

"It  will  not  hold  them,  sir." 

"Will  not  hold  them?  But  it  did  before. 
Pile  them  on." 

Charles  piled  up  the  apples  as  long  as  they 
would  stay  on,  and  then  said, — 


124  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

"It  will  not  hold  them  all,  sir." 

"Pile  them  on ;  pile  them  on.  It  held 
them  all  before." 

"Yes,  father,  but  now  the  basket  is  half 
full  of  chip-dirt" 

"Ah,  my  son,  there  's  the  mischief.  When 
a  basket  is  half  full  of  chip-dirt  it  will  not 
hold  a  basketful  of  apples.  You  have  been 
filling  your  mind  with  chip-dirt  stories,  and 
how  do  you  think  you  can  then  fill  it  with 
arithmetic  and  spelling  ?  How  many  volumes 
of  Oliver  Optic's  works  have  you  read?" 

"I  have  read  them  all,  sir." 

"And  how  many  dime  novels?" 

"I  do  not  know,  sir.  I  have  read  a  good 
many." 

"  What  papers  do  you  read?" 

"27ie  Fireside  Companion^  The  Boys  of 
New  YorTc,  and  Tlie  Boys'  Oivn." 

"Well,  my  son,  that  basket  must  be  pretty 
nearly  full  of  chip-dirt  by  this  time,  and  how 


THE   BASKET   OF   CHIP-DIRT.  125 

do  you  suppose  you  can  now  pile  in  the 
geography  and  the  grammar  ?  " 

"I  never  looked  upon  it  in  that  light  be- 
fore." 

"Well,  my  boy,  take  the  chip-dirt  back 
to  the  wood-house  and  see  if  the  basket  will 
hold  the  apples  then." 

Charles  quickly  left  the  chip-dirt  outside, 
and  filled  the  basket  with  the  apples. 

"Does  it  hold  them  now?" 

"Oh,  yes,  sir;  it  holds  them  all  now." 

"Well,  my  son,  it  will  not  be  so  easy  to 
empty  the  chip-dirt  from  your  mind.  But  I 
caution  you  not  to  put  any  more  in.'^ 

Charles  understood  the  meaning  of  this. 
It  was  a  good  example  of  object  teaching,  and 
the  next  term,  although  it  cost  him  many  a 
severe  efiort  to  keep  away  from  the  chip-dirt, 
his  record  was  far  less  unsatisfactory.  He 
was  no  longer  below  ranh.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  Charlie  will  yet  crowd  out  the  chip-dirt 


126  TALKS   WITH  JIT  BOYS. 

from  his  mind  by  filling  it  with  the  good  and 
the  true. 

*^  That  is  the  incident ;  and  if  it  applies  to 
any  of  you,  I  hope  you  will  make  the  appli- 
cation. It  gives  me  great  satisfaction,  how- 
ever, to  say  that  I  believe  there  is  far  less 
chip-dirt  in  this  school  than  there  was  a  few 
years  ago.  The  last  list  of  books  that  I 
noted  in  my  memorandum  book,  asking  each 
boy  in  school  the  title  of  the  last  book  he 
had  read,  was  a  very  satisfactory  list.  There 
was  very  little  chip-dirt  among  the  books 
read.  Some  day,  when  I  have  collated  them, 
I  may  read  you  the  list. 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  127 


xin. 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS :  THE  LESSON  OF  HIS 
LIFE. 

'THE  life  of  Wendell  Phillips  presents  to 
the  young  several  important  lessons. 
The  most  obvious  of  these  is,  probably,  the 
lesson  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  truth.  He 
turned  aside  from  the  most  alluring  prospects 
of  wealth,  social  distinction,  honor  and  fame, 
to  devote  his  life  to  the  advocacy  of  an  un- 
popular cause  ;  and  that  from  the  pure  mo- 
tive oi  the  love  of  truth. 

Born  in  1811 ;  entering  Harvard  College 
in  1827,  under  sixteen  years  of  age  ;  gradu- 
ating before  he  was  twenty ;  admitted  to  the 
Suffolk  bar  at  twenty-three ;  belonging  to 
one  of  the  first  families  in  Boston,  of  which 


128  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

city  his  father  was  the  first  mayor  ;  the  most 
cultured  and  polished  society  of  the  age 
opening  its  doors  to  him,  not  only  on  ac- 
count of  his  social  position,  but  equally  from 
his  own  scholarship  and  culture,  —  few 
young  men  in  this  country  have  ever  had  a 
more  brilliant  future  predicted  for  them  by 
admiring  friends,  or  by  a  wide  circle  of  ac- 
quaintances. He  had  had  every  advantage 
that  wealth  and  social  position  could  confer. 
Moreover,  in  his  college  course  he  had  ex- 
hibited that  native  strength  of  intellect,  and 
those  superior  traits  of  mind  and  heart  which 
are  the  sure  precursors  of  a  brilliant  career. 
Widely  read  in  the  facts  and  the  philosophy 
of  history  ;  his  mind  well  stored  with  classi- 
cal learning,  and  well  disciplined  by  thorough 
training  in  the  foremost  college  in  the  land, 
—  what  door  of  advancement  or  preferment, 
what  avenue  of  brilliant  success,  would  be 
closed  to  him  ? 


WENDELL    PHILLIPS.  129 

At  the  early  age  of  twenty-three,  a  prac- 
titioner at  the  Suffolk  bar,  which  was  then 
graced  by  such  men  as  Daniel  Webster  and 
Jeremiah  Mason,  and  had  been  honored  by 
Joseph  Story  and  Samuel  Dexter,  —  he  him- 
self having  already  exhibited  remarkable 
powers  of  oratory,  —  surely  the  brightest 
and  most  successful  career  is  now  opening 
before  him.  It  would  require  but  little  im- 
agination to  picture  him  a  governor  of  that 
ancient  commonwealth,  senator  in  the  Amer- 
ican Congress,  or  perhaps  the  chief  execu- 
tive of  the  nation. 

Scarcely,  however,  had  he  entered  upon 
practice  at  the  bar,  when  troublous  times 
began.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  born  in 
1804,  —  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker,  and 
afterwards  to  a  cabinet-maker,  —  had  learned 
the  printers'  trade,  wrote  for  the  press,  be- 
came an  editor,  was  imprisoned  in  Baltimore, 
and  finally,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1831,  had 
9 


130  TALKS   WITH   INIT   BOYS. 

begun  in  Boston  the  publication  of  TJie 
Liberator^  a  paper  which  continued  to  advo- 
cate immediate  emancipation  till  the  fact  was 
accomplished,  and  it  was  discontinued  in 
December,  1865. 

On  the  21st  of  October,  1835,  a  meeting  of 
the  Women's  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Bos- 
ton was  broken  up  by  a  mob  of  "  gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing."  Garrison,  who 
was  assisting  at  the  meeting,  was  seized,  a 
rope  put  around  his  body,  and  he  was 
dragged  through  the  streets  of  Boston,  and 
only  saved  from  the  mob  by  being  put  in  jail. 

Wendell  Phillips,  then  less  than  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  was  a  witness  to  these 
transactions.  These  men,  "well-dressed, 
rich,  and  the  inheritors  not  only  of  money 
but  of  all  that  had  been  done  for  culture  and 
enlightenment  in  Boston  for  two  hundred 
years,  yet  still  so  sunk  in  essential  ignorance 
as  to  believe  they  could  fight  moral  convic- 


WENDELL   PHILIJPS.  131 

tions  with  brick-bats  and  ropes."  How  was 
the  soul  of  the  young  man  stirred  I 

His  first  distinguished  mark  as  an  orator 
was  made  Dec.  8,  1837,  when  he  was 
twenty-six  years  old.  It  was  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  the  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  an  appropri- 
ate place  for  that  first  address  of  his  in  de- 
fence of  liberty  of  speech,  liberty  of  the 
press,  and  liberty  of  the  slave. 

Rev.  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  had  been  mur- 
dered in  his  own  home,  in  the  city  of  Alton, 
111.,  by  a  pro-slavery  mob,  losing  his  life  in 
defending  the  freedom  of  the  press.  This 
meeting  had  been  called  to  "notice  in  a  suit- 
able manner"  this  event.  Resolutions,  de- 
ploring his  death  and  denouncing  the  mob, 
had  been  ofiered  and  were  under  discussion. 
Hon.  James  T.  Austin,  attorney-general  of 
the  Commonwealth,  spoke  in  opposition  to 
the  resolutions.  He  compared  the  slaves  to 
a  menagerie  of  wild  beasts,  and  the  rioters 


132  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

at  Alton  to  the  "  orderly  mob  which  threw 
the  tea  overboard  m  1773  "  ;  called  Lovejoy 
presumptuous  and  imprudent;  said  that  he 
"  died  as  the  fool  dieth " ;  and  asserted 
(referring  to  Rev.  William  Ellery  Channing, 
who  had  spoken)  that  "  a  clergj^mau  ming- 
ling in  the  debates  of  a  popular  assembly 
was  marvelously  out  of  place." 

Wendell  Phillips  followed  this  specious 
tu"ade  with  a  speech  at  once  bold,  incisive, 
and  patriotic.  "  Imprudent !  to  defend  the 
liberty  of  the  press  I  Why  ?  Because  the 
defence  was  unsuccessful  ?  Does  success  gild 
crime  into  patriotism,  and  .the  want  of  it 
change  heroic  self-devotion  to  imprudence? 
Was  Hampden  imprudent  when  he  drew  the 
sword  and  threw  away  the  scabbard  ? 

"Imagine  yourself  present  when  the  first 
news  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  reached 
a  New  England  town.  The  tale  would 
have   run   thus  ;    '  The  patriots  are  routed ; 


WENDELL    PHILLIPS.  133 

the  redcoats  are  victorious.  Warren  lies 
dead  upon  the  field.'  With  what  scorn 
would  that  tory  have  been  received,  who 
should  have  charged  Warren  with  impru- 
dence! who  should  have  said  that,  bred  a 
phj^sician,  he  was  'out  of  place'  in  that 
battle,  and  '  died  as  the  fool  dieth.' 

"As  much  as  thought  is  better  than  money, 
so  much  is  the  cause  in  which  Lovejoy 
died  nobler  than  a  mere  question  of  taxes. 
James  Otis  thundered  in  this  hall  when  the 
king  did  but  touch  his  pocket.  Imagine,  if 
you  can,  his  indignant  eloquence  had  Eng- 
land oiFered  to  put  a  gag  upon  his  lips." 

The  popular  sentiment  of  the  audience 
was  changed.  The  resolutions  were  adopted. 
But  more  than  that ;  Wendell  Phillips  had 
put  his  hand  to  the  plow,  and  never  after  did 
he  look  back.  From  that  time  till  the  day 
of  his  death  he  was  the  "  silver-tongued  ora- 
tor" for  the  slave  and  the  oppressed. 


134  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

He  threw  up  his  commission  as  a  lawyer 
because  he  would  not  make  oath  to  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  so  long 
as  it  protected  slave  property.  For  twenty- 
five  years  he  was  a  firm,  uncompromising  ab- 
olitionist, before  success  crowned  the  cause 
he  so  ably  advocated.  His  invective  was 
scathing ;  his  boldness  was  startling ;  his  elo- 
quence was  grand.  He  became  the  foremost 
orator  of  his  age,  for  his  heart  was  in  his 
words.  His  soul  was  on  fire,  and  it  is  fire 
that  kindles  fire.  Turning  his  back  upon 
riches,  scorning  honors,  place,  and  power, 
he  held  it  to  be  his  greatest  honor,  his  chief 
joy,  to  be  called  the  friend  of  the  poor  and 
the  oppressed,  to  plead  for  the  down-trodden 
and  the  enslaved. 

Finally  came  the  slave-holders'  rebellion. 
The  gun  which  sent  the  first  shot  against 
Fort  Sumter  was  heard  in  Maine  and  Mm- 
nesota.     The  conscience    of  the   North  had 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  135 

been  quickened  by  Phillips's  eloquence. 
There  was  to  be  no  more  compromise  with 
slavery ;  the  days  of  its  apologists  had  gone 
by  forever.  As  a  military  necessity  the 
slaves  of  those  in  rebellion  were  declared 
free.  The  rebellion  was  crushed.  The 
Union  triumphed  over  secession.  By  con- 
stitutional amendment  slavery  was  forever 
made  impossible  in  this  country,  which  for 
eighty  years  had  been  called  a  free  land. 
Surely  Wendell  Phillips  earned  the  right  to 
be  named  the  defender  of  the  oppressed;  the 
friend  of  the  slave.  He  was  true  to  the  truth 
as  he  saw  it.  To-day  the  pulpit,  the  press, 
the  people  of  the  land  call  slavery  a  sin,  just 
as  Garrison  and  Phillips  did  forty  years  ago. 
The  logic  of  events  is  potent  to  change  the 
opinions  of  men.  Had  Wendell  Phillips 
died  thirty  years  ago,  the  verdict  of  the 
American  people  regarding  him  would  have 
differed  from  that  verdict  to-day.     The  prin- 


136  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

ciples  he  advocated  have  succeeded ;  hence 
he  dies  a  patriot,  a  philanthropist,  a  Chris- 
tian. 

"  Be  thou  like  the  old  apostle, 

Be  thou  like  heroic  Paul; 
If  a  free  thought  seeks  expression, 

Speak  it  boldly,  speak  it  all. 
Face  thine  enemies,  accusers; 

Scorn  the  prison,  rack,  or  rod; 
And  if  thou  hast  truth  to  utter, 

Speak,  and  leave  the  rest  to  God." 


THE   PIIONOGRArH.  137 


xrv. 

THE  PHONOGRAPH. 


JOU  were  amused  as  well  as  instructed, 
the  other  day,  by  an  exhibition  of  the 
phonograph.  To  many  of  you  it  seemed 
marvelous  that  you  could  talk  into  a  ma- 
chine, and  that  what  you  said  could  be  bottled 
i(j),  and  afterwards  brought  ovit,  at  will,  and 
the  machine  made  to  repeat  exactly  what  was 
said.  But  so  it  was.  Moreover,  different 
things  could  be  recorded  by  it,  one  after 
another,  and  the  machine  made  to  talk  off 
three  or  four  things  at  once.  "  Mary  had  a 
little  lamb,"  could  be  recorded  upon  the  ma- 
chine ;  then  upon  the  same  grooves,  "  Hold 
the  fort  "  could  be  sung  into  it ;  again,  after 
turning  the  machine  back  to  the  same  start- 
ing point,  a  call  could  be  played  to  it  upon 


138  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

the  bugle,  and  finally,  the  machme  would 
register  upon  the  same  place  the  barking  of 
a  dog,  and  the  crowing  of  a  cock.  The  op- 
erator, as  you  saw,  would  then  turn  back  the 
diaphragm  to  the  beginning,  and  the  phono- 
graph would  at  one  and  the  same  time  tell 
you  the  pathetic  story  of  Mary  and  her  lamb, 
sing  "Hold  the  fort,"  give  forth,  loud  and 
clear,  the  bugle  call,  and  at  the  same  instant 
the  cock's  crowing;  and  the  dojj's  barkino;. 
If  you  directed  your  attention  to  one  or  an- 
other of  these  things,  your  ear  would  receive 
the  sounds  and  recognize  them. 

It  is  not  strange  that  you  should  consider 
this  a  marvelous  feat  of  the  phonograph. 
Think  of  it !  You  talk  into  a  miachine  a  bit 
of  poetry,  sing  into  it  a  song,  harli  into  it  a 
bark,  croio  into  it  a  crow,  hloiv  into  it  a  bugle- 
blast,  one  by  one,  and  the  little  cylinder,  by 
the  turning  of  a  crank,  shouts  them  all  out 
at  you  at  once! 


THE    PHONOGRAPH.  139 

But,  on  reflection,  is  this  any  more  won- 
derful than  that  each  one  of  you^wo  hundred 
boysVan  hear  what  I  am  saying  to  you  now 
and  here  ?  I  thinli  my  thoughts  ;  I  open  my 
mouth  ;  I  suddenly  expel  air  from  my  lungs  ; 
it  strikes  a  blow  upon  the  atmosphere,  and 
sets  it  vibrating.  The  vibratory  motion  of 
the  air  induces  a  corresponding  vibration  be- 
hind the  drum  of  your  ear.  This  afiects  the 
little  nerve  line,  which  telegraphs  the  same 
vibration  to  the  brain,  and  you  find  yourself 
thinking  the  same  thought  that  I  am  think- 
ing. The  telegraph,  the  telephone,  and  the 
phonograph  ;  three  wonders  !  No  more  mar- 
velous, however,  than  the  human  voice,  with 
its  wonderful  efiects.  Of  these  three  modern 
inventions,  the  phonograph  may  be  of  the 
least  consequence  practically,  but  theoreti- 
cally its  philosophical  inferences  are  strangely 
startling. 

Imagine  two  culprits  cast  into  the  prison 


140  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

cell  together  for  some  crime  which  they  have 
committed,  but  of  which  no  one  else  has  any 
positive  knowledge.  In  the  still  hours  of 
the  night,  with  no  eye  to  see  them  and  no 
ear  to  hear  them,  they  talk  to  each  other  of 
their  crime.  Unknown  to  them,  this  little 
revolving  cylinder,  with  its  tiny  screw- 
threads  and  its  diaphragm  and  needle,  is  set 
in  the  wall  of  the  cell,  and  is  noiselessly  re- 
cording every  spoken  word,  every  uttered 
sound. 

After  long  delays,  no  matter  how  long,  the 
prisoners  are  brought  before  the  judge.  The 
little  silent  cylinder  is  also  brought  into 
court.  Its  needle  is  set  at  the  beginning  of 
the  little  tin-foil  grooves.  The  cylinder  be- 
gins to  revolve,  and  lo  !  "  every  word  spoken 
in  darkness  is  heard  in  the  light,  and  that 
which  was  spoken  in  the  ear  in  closets  is  now 
proclaimed  upon  the  house-tops."  Out  of 
his  own  mouth  the  culprit  is  condemned. 


THE    PHONOGRAPH.  141 

Do  we  understand  the  phonograph  of  the 
Almighty?  His  omniscience,  omnipotence, 
and  omnipresence  appear  incomprehensible 
to  us  with  such  limited  knowledge  and 
power ;  but  can  we  not  conceive  the  possi- 
bility of  an  ethereal  wave  vibrating  onward 
and  onward  until  it  confronts  us  at  the  final 
judgment-seat?  An  impure  word,  a  direct 
or  indirect  falsehood,  may  come  back  to  us, 
and  the  judge  himself  may  recognize  our  in- 
dividual voices.  A  life  of  honesty  and  up- 
rightness, a  pure  tongue,  a  generous  spirit 
that  speaketh  no  ill  and  thinketh  no  evil,  — 
these  things  can  never  condemn  us.  But  an 
impure  thought,  a  hasty  word,  may  return 
to  torment  us,  we  know  not  when  or  where. 


14:2  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOrS. 


XV. 

THE  TWO  PORTRAITS. 

"VrOU  have  all  heard,  I  dare  say,  the  old 
story  of  a  distinguished  artist  who 
painted  a  portrait  of  innocence.  He  took 
for  his  subject  a  beautiful  boy,  with  face  fair, 
frank,  and  friendly,  his  hair  falling  over  his 
shoulders  in  golden  ringlets,  his  eye  full  and 
large,  his  forehead  high  and  noble,  and  his 
whole  expression  such  as  would  attract  one 
as  a  sweet  face  of  innocent  childhood.  He 
was  his  mother's  love  and  hope  and  joy. 
The  painting  was  finished ;  it  was  a  great 
success ;  everybody  praised  it.  The  artist 
soon  became  famous,  and  had  a  long  career, 
particularly  noted  for  his  skill  in  delineating 
character. 


THE   TWO   PORTRAITS.  143 

At  last,  when  he  was  an  old  man,  some 
friend  reminded  him  that  he  had  never 
painted  the  companion  picture  to  this  early 
portrait  of  "Innocence."  "You  ought,"  said 
he,  "to  paint  a  companion  piece,  represent- 
ing'Vice.'"  The  painter  thought  upon  the 
matter,  and  finally  decided  that  if  he  could 
find  a  proper  subject  he  would  paint  the 
counterpai-t  for  his  "Innocence."  One  even- 
ing, as  he  was  returning  home,  he  stumbled 
over  the  prostrate  form  of  a  man  stupefied 
with  intoxicants.  Fearing  the  man  would 
perish,  he  kindly  provided  for  his  restoration 
to  consciousness.  He  was  one  mass  of  filth. 
His  hair  long  and  matted,  his  face  blotched 
and  dirty,  his  clothing  torn  and  filthy,  —  he 
was  the  unpersonation  of  wretchedness,  vice, 
and  crime.  "I  have  my  subject,"  the  painter 
exclaiined ;  and  he  painted  a  faithful  portrait 
of  him,  and  hung  it  alongside  of  the  picture 
of  "Innocence."     Here,  then,  was  the  con- 


144  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

trast.  On  the  one  hand,  childhood,  inno- 
cence, joy,  hope,  ambition.  On  the  other, 
age,  vice,  crime,  of  hope  bereft,  ambition 
extinguished,  absolute  despair  pictured  upon 
his  every  feature.  The  sot  lived  but  a  few- 
days  after  the  picture  was  finished,  but  long 
enough,  having  seen  the  child's  portrait,  to 
recognize  it,  in  extreme  anguish  and  self- 
condemnation,  as  his  own,  taken  in  the  early 
days  of  his  innocence  and  purity. 

The  story  points  a  moral  of  great  conse- 
quence to  every  one  of  you.  You  are  school 
children,  young,  gay,  joyful,  happy,  looking 
forward  to  a  long  life  of  honorable  labor  and 
success  in  the  world.  Will  you  all  attain 
the  goal  of  your  youthful  ambitions  and 
aspirations?  This  is  an  important  question 
for  you.  It  would  be  painful  in  the  extreme 
if  one  should  have  full  knowledge  of  the 
future,  and  should  know  and  predict  that 
any  one  of  you  would  fall  into  vice,  crime. 


THE    TWO   PORTRAITS.  145 

and  despair.  But  neither  virtue  nor  fortune 
comes  without  the  askinsr.  There  are  laws 
which  govern  life,  laws  as  inexorable  as  those 
of  physics  and  chemistry.  Nothing  but  a 
miracle  interferes  with  these  rules  of  work- 
ing. 

To  win  success,  to  achieve  usefulness,  and 
to  secure  happiness,  require  a  well-spent 
youth.  The  object  and  purpose  of  school 
and  school-life  are  to  raise  the  young  to  true 
manhood.  The  school  is  not,  primarily,  to 
impart  instruction,  to  cram  into  the  young 
minds  a  mass  of  knowledge,  however  useful 
that  might  prove  ;  but  the  grand  aim  of  the 
school,  of  education,  is  to  develop  the  genius 
of  manhood,  to  unfold  the  higher  powers  of 
our  being,  to  discipline  the  mind,  to  impJant 
correct  habits  and  accurate  notions  of  thinsfs, 
to  gain  true  views  of  life,  that  the  recipient 
of  this  schooling  may  know  upon  what 
depends  life's  success  and  what  causes  life's 
10 


146  TALKS   WITH   IVIY   BOYS. 

failure  ;  in  short,  to  prepare  him  to  stem  the 
current  and  to  resist  temptation ;  to  acquire 
those  habits  of  probity,  industry,  and  perse- 
verance which  alone  Vill  give  him  the  ele- 
ments by  which  he  may  command  success. 

It  will  be  well  for  you  all  to  bear  in  mind 
what  these  elements  of  success  are.  No 
man  can  secure  true  good  fortune  in  life 
unless  he  has  firmly  implanted  within  him 
(1)  firm  adherence  to  the  right,  true  prin- 
ciple, an  honest  heart ;  (2)  fixed  habits  of 
industry,  with  that  control  over  his  will,  his 
desires,  his  appetites,  his  passions,  which  will 
permit  him  to  attend  steadily  to  his  business  ; 
and  (3)  that  perseverance,  growing  out  of 
his  industry  and  self-control,  which  will  per- 
mit him  to  stick  to  his  business  or  any  object 
he  may  wish  to  pursue  till  success  has  been 
reached  and  his  ideal  realized.  All  these 
things  depend  upon  strict  attention  to  the 
duties  of  home  and  school  at  this  period  of 


THE    TWO   PORTRAITS.  147 

your  life.  "As  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  is 
inclined,"  is  true  if  you  give  the  right  inter- 
pretation to  it.  Not  every  one  manifests  in 
the  school  days  of  youth  what  he  afterwards 
becomes ;  but  by  a  careful  analysis  of  what 
he  was  and  what  he  did  in  his  early  days, 
the  germ,  the  elements  of  his  future  life  will 
generally  be  found  apparent.  Attention  to 
duty,  loyalty  to  truth,  industry,  and  fidelity 
will  invariably  bring  their  reward. 

"  Honesty  is  the  best  policy  "  ;  not  because 
it  is  "policy,  but  because  it  is  honesty.''^ 


148  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

XVI. 

THE  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT. 

1 N  a  few  days  the  people  of  the  United 
States  will  elect  the  chief  executive 
officer  for  the  next  four  years.*  It  is  impor- 
tant that  all  the  boys,  and  the  girls,  too, 
for  that  matter,  since  by  and  by  they  may 
possibly  or  will  probably  vote  as  well  as  the 
boys,  should  know  exactly  what  the  entire 
process  is  for  the  election  of  a  President  of 
the  United  States.  Four  years  ago,  on  the 
day  of  the  election,  the  writer  called 
together  his  entire  school,  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  boys,  placed  the  class  studying  the 
United  States  Constitution,  which  had  just 
finished  their  consideration  of  the  executive 
department,  on  the  front  seat,  and  carried 
through  substantially  the  following  exercise. 

•November,  1884. 


THE  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT.     149 

It  is  now  published  with  the  hope  that  a 
similar  plan  may  be  used  in  many  schools  on 
the  day  of  election  in  coming  years. 

"John,  will  you  state  to  the  school  what  is 
the  first  thing  the  United  States  Constitution 
says  about  the  election  of  a  President  ?  " 

"  The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
He  shall  hold  his  office  during  the  term  of 
four  years.,  and,  together  with  the  Vice- 
President,  chosen  for  the  same  term,  be 
elected,  as  follows." 

"What  do  you  think,  John,  about  the 
length  of  the  term,  four  years  ?  " 

"  I  think  it  is  too  short.  If  the  term  were 
six  or  eight  years,  and  the  President  were 
not  eligible  to  a  re-election,  there  would  be 
less  disturbance  incident  to  the  contest,  and 
the  President  would  not  be  trammeled  in  his 
action,  by  the  wish  to  so  shape  his  course  as 
to  secure  a  re-election." 


150  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

"  James,  state  what  the  Constitution  says 
about  the  method  of  electing  presidential 
electors  ?  " 

"Each  state  shall  appoint,  in  such  manner 
as  the  Legislature  thereof  may  direct,  a  num- 
ber of  electors  equal  to  the  whole  number 
of  senators  and  representatives  to  which  the 
state  may  be  entitled  in  the  Congress ;  but 
no  senator  or  representative,  or  person 
holding  an  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the 
United  States,  shall  be  appointed  an  elector." 

"  To  how  many  electors,  then,  is  Massa- 
chusetts entitled?" 

"Massachusetts  has  twelve  representatives 
and  two  senators ;  therefore  she  is  entitled 
to  fourteen  electors." 

"To  how  many  electors  is  Delaware  en- 
titled?" 

"Delaware  has  only  one  representative 
and  two  senators ;  therefore  Delaware  is  en- 
titled to  three  electors." 


THE    ELECTION    OF    PRESIDENT.  151 

"To  how  many,  New  York?  " 

"  New  York  has  thirty-four  representatives, 
and  consequently  has  thirty-six  electors." 

"How  many  electors  are  there,  at  present, 
in  all  the  states  ?  " 

"There  are  thirty-eight  states,  with  seven- 
ty-six senators,  and  three  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five representatives.  According  to  the 
Constitution,  the  whole  number  of  electors 
would  be  four  hundred  and  one." 

"Thomas,  you  may  give  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  in  relation  to  the  time  of  choos- 
ing the  electors." 

"The  Congress  may  determine  the  time 
of  choosing  the  electors,  and  the  day  on 
which  they  shall  give  their  votes,  which  day 
shall  be  the  same  throughout  the  United 
states." 

"Has  Congress  by  law  established  the 
day?" 

"It  has.     In  1792  a  law  was  enacted  re- 


152  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

quiring  electors  to  be  elected  by  each  state 
within  thirty-four  days  preceding  the  first 
Wednesday  in  December ;  but  in  1845  Con- 
gi'ess  passed  a  law  declaring  that  the  electors 
shall  be  appointed  on  the  'Tuesday  next 
after  the  first  Monday  in  November.'" 
"  How  are  these  electors  appointed  ?  " 
"At  the  present  time  in  every  state  the 
electors  are  chosen  by  the  people.  In  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Republic  they  were  ap- 
pointed in  difierent  ways  in  different  states. 
In  some  of  them  the  Legislature  appointed, 
in  others  they  were  elected  by  the  people. 
South  Carolina  was  the  last  state  to  change ; 
she  appointed  her  electors  by  her  Legisla- 
ture until  the  civil  war.  Under  her  new 
constitution  since  the  war,  she  has  passed 
a  law  providing  for  their  election  by  the 
people." 

"  Now,  William,  you  may  repeat  the  clause 
in   the   Constitution  which  tells   how  these 


THE    ELECTIOX    OF    PRESIDENT.  153 

electors  shall  cast  their  votes  for  President 
and  Vice-President." 

"  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective 
states  and  vote  by  ballot  for  President  and 
Vice-President,  one  of  whom,  at  least,  shall 
not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  state  with 
themselves.  They  shall  name  in  their  ballots 
the  person  voted  for  as  President,  and  in 
distinct  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  Vice- 
President,  and  they  shall  make  distinct  lists 
of  all  persons  voted  for  as  President  and  of 
all  persons  voted  for  as  Vice-President,  and 
of  the  number  of  votes  for  each,  which  lists 
they  shall  sign  and  certify  and  transmit 
sealed  to  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  directed  to  the  president  of 
the  senate ;  the  president  of  the  senate 
shall,  in  presence  of  the  senate  and  house  of 
representatives,  open  all  the  certificates,  and 
the  votes  shall  then  be  counted.  The  person 
having    the   greatest    number  of  votes    for 


154  TALKS    WITH   MY    DOTS. 

President  shall  be  the  President,  if  such 
nurober  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number 
of  electors  appointed." 

"When  do  these  electors  meet  to  cast 
their  votes  ?  " 

"By  the  law  of  1792  the  electors  are  re- 
quired to  meet  and  give  their  votes  on  the 
first  Wednesday  in  December." 

"  At  what  place  do  they  meet  ?  " 

"  At  such  place  in  each  state  as  the  Legis- 
lature thereof  shall  have  by  law  directed. 
They  usually  meet  at  the  capital  of  the 
state." 

"Is  there  such  a  thing,  then,  as  the  elec- 
toral college  ?  " 

"  There  are  as  many  electoral  colleges  as 
there  are  states ;  the  electors,  therefore, 
meet  the  same  day  in  all  the  states  and  cast 
their  votes  independently  of  each  other." 

"  Henry,  you  may  describe  the  certificates 
they  make  and  sign." 


THE   ELECTION  OF   PRESIDENT.  155 

"The  electors  are  required  to  make  and 
sign  three  certificates  of  all  the  votes  given 
by  them,  and  to  appoint  a  person  to  take 
charge  of  and  deliver  one  of  the  certificates 
to  the  president  of  the  senate  at  the  seat 
of  the  national  government  before  the  first 
Wednesday  in  January  next  ensuing. 

"  K  there  should  then  be  no  president  of 
the  senate  at  the  seat  of  government,  the  cer- 
tificate to  be  deposited  with  the  Secretary  of 
State,  to  be  delivered  by  him  as  soon  as  may 
be  to  the  president  of  the  senate.  Another 
one  of  the  certificates  is  to  be  sent  by  mail, 
directed  to  the  president  of  the  senate  at  the 
seat  of  government.  The  remaining  certifi- 
cate is  to  be  delivered  to  the  judge  of  the 
District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
district  in  which  the  electors  are  assem- 
bled. 

"The  executive  authority  of  each  state  is 
also  directed  by  the  act  to  make   out   and 


156  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

certify  three  lists  of  the  names  of  the 
electors  of  such  state,  and  the  electors  are 
to  annex  one  of  those  certificates  to  each  of 
the  lists  of  their  votes." 

"  Suppose,  for  any  reason,  the  messenger 
of  any  state  does  not  deliver  the  certifi- 
cate of  the  vote,  and  the  certificate  sent 
by  mail  does  not  reach  the  president  of  the 
senate." 

"  If  a  list  of  votes  shall  not  have  been  re- 
ceived at  the  seat  of  the  government  on  or 
before  the  first  Wednesday  in  January,  then 
the  Secretary  of  State  shall  send  a  special 
messenger  to  the  district  judge  in  whose  cus- 
tody a  list  has  been  lodged,  who  shall  imme- 
diately transmit  his  list  to  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment by  this  messenger." 

"When,  and  how,  and  by  whom  are  the 
votes  from  the  several  states  counted  ?  " 

"  On  the  second  Wednesday  in  February 
succeeding  the  meeting  of  the  electors,  the 


THE   ELECTION   OF   PRESIDENT.  157 

certificates  shall  be  opened  by  the  president 
of  the  senate,  in  the  presence  of  the  senate 
and  the  house  of  representatives,  the  votes 
counted,  and  the  persons  who  shall  fill  the 
oflSce  of  President  and  of  Vice-President  as- 
certained and  declared  agreeably  to  the  Con- 
stitution." 

"  When  is  the  President  inaugurated  ?  " 
"  On  the  4th  of  the  following  March." 
"Stephen,  what  are  the  requisite  qualifica- 
tions for  a  President  of  the  United  States  ?  " 

"The  Constitution  prescribes  three  qualifi- 
cations, viz.  :  (1.)  He  shall  be  thirty-five 
years  old.  (2.)  He  shall  be  a  native-born 
citizen  of  the  United  States.  (3.)  He  shall 
have  been  a  resident  in  the  United  States 
fourteen  years  prior  to  taking  his  seat." 

"  You  saj'  fourteen  years  a  resident.  If  a 
man  should  travel  abroad  during  that  time, 
would  it  make  him  ineligible  ?  " 

"No,  sir.    He  would  not  lose  his  residence 


158  TALKS    WITH   BIY   BOYS. 

by  a  trip  abroad,  if  he  still  retain(}d  his 
home  and  legal  residence." 

"  Suppose  he  should  be  abroad  on  govern- 
ment service  ?  " 

"  That  does  not  cause  him  to  lose  his  resi- 
dence. James  Buchanan  was  minister  to 
Great  Britain,  just  prior  to  his  election  as 
President.  A  government  officer  on  foreign 
service  still  retains  his  residence  at  his 
home.  Moreover,  should  he  have  children 
born  abroad,  they  will  be  considered  as 
native-born  citizens . " 

"Albert,  suppose  there  is  no  choice  by  the 
electors  ;  what  then  ?  " 

"The  Constitution  provides  that  the 
house  of  representatives  shall  immediately 
choose,  by  ballot,  a  President  from  the  per- 
sons having  the  highest  number,  not  exceed- 
ing three,  on  the  list  of  those  voted  for  as 
President." 

"  How  shall  this  vote  be  taken  ?  " 


THE   ELECTION   OF   PRESIDENT.  159 

"  The  vote  shall  be  taken  by  states,  each 
state  haymg  one  vote." 

"  Well,  now  we  have  followed  the  method 
of  electing  a  President  through,  step  by  step. 
But  let  us  return  and  see  if  we  altogether 
understand  it.  Robert,  what  is  the  first 
thing,  practically,  that  is  done  toward  the 
election  of  a  President  ?  " 

"The  election  of  the  electors." 

"That,  I  grant,  is  the  first  step  provided 
by  the  Constitution.  But,  practically,  is 
there  nothing  done  preceding  the  election  of 
the  electors?" 

"Yes,  sir;  there  are  always  at  least  two 
great  political  parties  in  the  country.  Each 
party  calls  a  general  convention  from  the 
whole  country  to  nominate  a  President,  and 
these  political  conventions  put  their  candi- 
dates in  nomination.  Then,  in  every  state, 
each  party,  by  convention,  nominates  their 
candidates  for  electors  ;  so  that  in  voting  for 


IGO  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

a  particular  set  of  electors  it  is  understood 
to  be  equivalent  to  voting  for  such  a  candi- 
date for  President." 

"  George,  do  not  the  citizens  vote  directly 
for  the  President  ?  " 

"  No,  sir.  The  printed  ballots  usually 
have  at  the  head  the  name  of  the  party, 
followed  by  the  name  of  the  candidate 
for  President  and  for  Vice-President,  and 
then,  below,  the  names  of  the  proposed 
electors." 

"Now,  Winthrop,  is  this  all  necessary  for 
the  vote?" 

"No,  sir;  all  that  is  necessary  is  the  names 
of  the  electors.  Each  citizen  votes  only  for 
the  electors,  and  not  for  President  and  Vice- 
President.  Their  names  might  be  torn  off 
from  the  ballot  without  affecting  the  value 
of  the  vote." 

The  teacher,  in  carrying  on  this  exercise  in 
his  school,  should  have  in  hand  specimens 


THE   ELECTION    OF   PRESIDENT.  161 

of  ballots,  and  exhibit  them,  and  explain  fur- 
ther upon  this  point. 

"Hollis,  when  is  the  President  elected?" 

"  When  the  presidential  electors  cast  their 
votes  for  President,  on  the  first  Wednesday 
in  December." 

"But  is  it  not  practically  certain  before 
that  time?" 

"Yes,  sir.  The  electors  are  substantially 
pledged  to  vote  for  the  party  candidate  pre- 
A'iously  nominated ;  so  that  when  they  are 
elected,  on  the  first  Tuesday  after  the  first 
Monday  in  November,  it  is  practically  certain 
who  is  to  be  President,  although  he  is  not 
then  elected." 

There  are  many  other  matters  which  would 
make  an  interesting  discussion  for  us,  as  the 
whole  question  of  the  election  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent by  the  electors  or  by  the  senate,  the 
succession  to  the  Presidency  and  to  the  Vice- 
Presidency,  etc.  ;  but  we  have  had  enough 
11 


1G2  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

for  one  lesson.  Please  consider  for  a  mo- 
ment what  a  grand  sight  it  is  to-day,  to  see 
a  nation  of  fifty  millions  of  people  placing 
their  votes  quietly  in  the  ballot-box  for  thcii 
chief  magistrate  for  the  next  foiir  years. 
Perhaps  we  can  all  now  sing  "America." 


WHAT   DO   THE   BOYS   READ?  163 


XVII. 
WHAT   DO   THE   BOYS   READ? 

T?EW  questions  of  more  vital  importance 
to  the  proper  growth,  development,  cul- 
ture, and  character  of  boys  are  now  before 
the  public  than  the  question,  "  W/iaf  do  tliey 
read?"  Perhaps  few  have  been  more  neg- 
lected in  the  past.  It  is  gratifying  to  find 
a  new  interest  now  being  awakened  concern- 
ing this  subject  on  the  part  of  teachers,  par- 
ents, and  the  public  generally.  It  is  high 
time  this  matter  received  a  more  careful  at- 
tention. When  we  find  the  most  demoraliz- 
ing tendencies  and  the  most  direct  inculcation 
of  vice  and  vicious  propensities  spread  broad- 
cast through  the  mails  and  other  channels,  by 
means  of  low  and  immoral  papers  and  pam- 


164  TALKS   WITPI    MY   BOYS. 

phlets,  wild  and  highly  wi'ought  stories,  im- 
probable adventures,  prize  fights,  bi-utal  and 
vicious  incidents,  the  details  of  crime  spread 
out  in  all  its  revolting  features  upon  the 
printed  page,  Indian  and  frontier  life, 
etc.,  we  may  not  be  much  surprised  if 
youthful  bands  of  robbers,  burglars,  and 
thieves  are  found  in  all  our  cities  and  large 
towns. 

Moreover,  there  is,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  no  good  reason  for  such  a  state  of 
things.  There  never  was  a  time  when  the 
young  had  easy  access  to  so  many  and  such 
a  variety  of  good  books,  suited  to  all  classes 
and  all  tastes. 

Books,  in  great  number  and  variety,  both 
new  and  old,  of  the  very  best  quality,  can  be 
had  by  all  young  people.  It  is  gratifying, 
now  and  then,  to  find  teachers,  as  we  fre- 
quently do  nowadays,  who  are  taking  great 
pains  to  place  before  their  pupils  good  books. 


WHAT   DO   THE    BOYS    READ?  165 

In  a  school-room  of  forty  boys,  of  the  age 
of  nine,  ten,  and  eleven  years,  the  teacher 
a  few  days  ago  inquired  how  many  of  them 
were  then  reading  some  book.  She  found 
by  their  answers  that  one  half  of  them  were 
then  engaged  in  reading  the  following  books  : 

"Ai'abian  Nights'  Entertainment,"  "A  Brave 
Soldier,"  "  A  Family  night  through  Egypt  and 
Spain,"  "  Gulliver's  Travel^,"  "  The  Young  Eover," 
"  Little  Men,"  "  Little  Women,"  "  Zigzag  —  Classic 
Lands,"  "Life  of  Washington,"  "The  Little 
Camp,"  "  Hawthorne's  Wonder  Book,"  "  Tom 
Brown  at  Eugby,"  "From  the  Hudson  to  the 
Neva,"  "Uncle  Eemus — His  Songs  and  Sayings," 
"Kobinson  Crusoe,"  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  (by two 
boys),  "Land  and  Game  Birds  of  New  England," 
"  Boys  of  Seventy-six,"  "  Child's  History  of  the 
United  States." 

The  above  was  not  the  result  of  any  spe- 
cial care.  The  pupils  did  not  know  that  the 
question  was  to  be  asked  of  them.  No  par- 
ticular attention  had  been  directed  to  the 
subject  before  making  this  record,  only  the 


166  TALKS   WITH    MY   BOYS. 

pupils  had  been  under  good  general  training 
in  relation  to  the  subject. 

In  another  room  of  the  same  school,  con- 
sisting of  fifty  or  sixty  older  boys,  anothei 
record  has  been  made  up.  A  little  ove" 
seven  years  ago  a  record  was  taken,  there 
being  then  present  just  sixty  boys  of  between 
fourteen  and  nineteen  years  of  age,  of  the 
most  popular  books  read  by  them.  This 
record  was  taken  Nov.  15,  1876.  Another 
similar  record  was  taken  from  the  same 
room,  March  13,  1884,  there  being  that  day 
present  in  the  room  forty-nine  boys,  no  one 
of  whom  was  in  the  previous  record.  The 
result  will  be  given  in  the  table  below. 
The  fio;ures  in  the  first  column  show  the 
number  of  boys  out  of  sixty  who,  in  1876, 
had  read  the  books  indicated ;  the  figures 
in  the  second  show  the  number,  out  of 
forty-nine  boys,  who  had  read  the  same 
books  in  1884.     All  books  are  given  which 


WHAT   DO   THE   BOYS   READ? 


.167 


had   over  jive  readers 

amon 

g   the 

number 

present :  — 

In  1876 

In  1884. 

Robinson  Crusoe     . 

52 

38 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 

46 

23 

Swiss  Family  Robinson  . 

38 

27 

Ragged  Dick  . 

36 

27 

Arabian  Nights 

34 

29 

Life  of  P.  T.  Barnum    . 

33 

12 

Life  of  Daniel  Boone    . 

30 

12 

Twenty  Thousand  Leagues  Undei 

the  Sea     . 

. 

28 

29 

One  volume  of  Jack  Harkaway 

27 

6 

School  Days  at  Rugby    . 

. 

25 

30 

Tom  Brown  at  Oxford    . 

. 

17 

8 

Round  the  World  in  Eighty  Days 

24 

18 

Helen's  Babies 

19 

21 

Gulliver's  Travels  . 

19 

18 

The  Mysterious  Island   . 

18 

14 

Cudjoe's  Cave 

16 

10 

The  Last  of  the  Mohicans 

16 

10 

Cooper's  Pioneers  . 

15 

13 

Cooper's  Deerslayer 

14 

10 

A  Journey  to  the  Center 

of  th€ 

Earth 

. 

13 

8 

Mark  Twain's  Innocents  Abroad  . 

11 

13 

Ivanhoc  .... 

,        , 

12 

14 

168 


TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 


Waverley  .... 
Seven  Oaks  .... 
Pickwick  Papers 
Red  Eover  .... 
The  New  Testament  through 
Lossing's  Civil  War  in  America 


In  1876. 

In  1884. 

10 

3 

8 

1 

8 

11 

8 

7 

7 

3 

5 

3 

To  this  list  the  following  were  added  in 
the  last  examination  (March,  1884),  which 
were  not  included  in  the  former  record  :  — 


In  1884. 

Peck's  Bad  Boy 33 

CofBn's  Boj-s  of  Seventy-six    . 

24 

Little  Men         .... 

18 

Vicar  of  Wakefield 

15 

Life  of  Kit  Carson 

15 

Oliver  Twist      . 

14 

Old  Curiosity  Shop    , 

13 

Little  Women    . 

13 

Roughing  It 

9 

Talisman   . 

7 

Rob  Roy    . 

6 

Quentin  Durward 

5 

Kenilworth 

5 

Barnaby  Rudge 

5 

WHAT   DO    THE    BOYS   READ?  169 

A  careful  examination  of  the  alcove  list, 
observing  the  number  of  readers  for  each 
book,  and  the  change  in  number  from  the 
1876  record  to  that  of  1884,  will  prove  of 
much  interest  to  teachers.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  the  former  record  was  from 
sixty  pupils,  and  the  latter  from  orAy  forty- 
nine. 


170  TALKS    WITH   IIY   BOYS. 


xvin. 

THE    PRESIDENTS   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

"I  T  is  my  purpose  to  give  to  you  this  morn- 
ing a  series  of  facts  in  reference  to  the 
several  distinguished  men  who  have  been 
elevated  to  the  high  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States.  You  will  not  foil  to  remem- 
ber that  this  is  the  highest  political  office 
that  can  be  given  to  a  man  in  the  whole 
world. 

To  be  chosen  by  popular  suffrage  —  for  it 
amounts  to  that,  although  by  a  little  circum- 
locution —  to  be  the  chief  executive  officer 
for  a  term  of  four  years  of  this  great  nation, 
probably  the  strongest,  undoubtedly  the 
most  active  and  energetic,  and  perhaps  the 
most  intelligent  nation  on  earth,  — a  nation 


PRESIDENTS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.      171 

now  numbering  nearly  sixty  millions  of  free 
people, — this  is,  without  dispute,  the  greatest 
political  honor  that  can  be  bestowed  upon  a 
man.  The  list  of  names  of  the  men  who 
have  attained  to  this  high  rank  is  a  worthy 
list.  From  George  Washington  to  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  we  need  not  be  ashamed  of  the 
rulers  of  our  people.  I  wish  to  name  to  you 
a  series  of  facts  which  will  show  to  you,  in 
ver}^  brief  epitome,  their  lives.  These  facts 
will  include  something  about  their  education, 
the  age  at  which  those  who  had  a  collegiate 
course  of  study  gi-aduated,  their  age  in  enter- 
ing active  life,  the  age  at  which  they  became 
President,  and  their  age  at  death.  By  pla- 
cing these  facts  also  upon  the  blackboard  in  a 
tabulated  form,  you  can  gather  important 
suo;2:estions  from  them.  That  I  shall  leave 
to  be  done  in  the  several  rooms. 

1.     George  Washington.    At  13  wrote  110 
maxims  of  civility  and  good  behavior ;  began 


172  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

surveying  at  16  for  a  doubloon  a  day;  ad- 
jutant at  19  ;  commanded  a  regiment  at  22  ; 
married  at  27  ;  commander-in-chief  at  43  ; 
President  at  57  ;  died  at  68. 

2.  John  Adams.  Graduated  at  Harvard 
at  20  ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  23  ;  married  at 
29 ;  interested  in  political  affairs  at  30 ; 
elected  to  Massachusetts  Legislature  at  3o  ; 
delegate  to  Continental  Congress  at  40  ;  sec- 
onded a  motion  by  Richard  Henry  Lee  in 
Congress  for  the  independence  of  th^  United 
States  at  41 ;  negotiated  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  England  (with  Jay  and  Franklin)  at 
47;  minister  to  St.  James  at  50;  Vice- 
President  at  54 ;  President  at  61 ;  died  at 
90. 

3.  Thomas  Jefferson.  Entered  colleo;e 
at  17  ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  24 ;  married  at 
29  ;  Continental  Congress  at  32 ;  drew  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  at  33 ;  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia  at  36 ;  minister  to  France 


PRESIDENTS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.      173 

at  41 ;  Secretary  of  State  at  48  ;  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  at  53  ;  President 
from  57  to  65  ;  died  at  83. 

4.  James  Madison.  Entered  college  at 
18  ;  Continental  Congress  at  29  ;  delegate  to 
the  Constitutional  Convention  at  36  ;  Con- 
gress from  38  to  46  ;  President  at  58  ;  died 
at  85. 

5.  James  Monroe.  Graduated  at  college 
at  18  ;  entered  the  army  at  18  ;  Continental 
Congress  at  25 ;  United  States  senator  at 
32  ;  governor  of  Virginia  at  41 ;  envoy  ex- 
traordinary to  France,  and  purchased  Louisi- 
ana at  45  ;  President  at  59  ;  died  at  73. 

6.  John  Quincy  Adams.  At  11  attended 
school  in  Paris ;  entered  the  University  of 
Ley  den  at  13  ;  graduated  at  Harvard  at  21 ; 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  24 ;  minister  to  the 
Hague  at  27  ;  married  at  30 ;  minister  to 
Berlin  from  30  to  34  ;  United  States  senator 
at  36  ;  professor  rhetoric  at  Harvard  at  38  ; 


174  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

minister  to  Prussia  at  39,  and  to  St.  James 
at  48  ;  Secretary  of  State  at  50  ;  President  at 
57 ;  representative  to  Congress  63  to  over 
80,  when  he  died. 

7.  Andrew  Jackson.  Commenced  study 
of  law  at  18 ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  19  ; 
married  at  24 ;  representative  in  Congress  at 
29 ;  senator  at  30 ;  major-general  in  the 
United  States  Army  at  47  ;  won  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans  at  48  ;  Seminole  war  at  50  ; 
President  of  the  United  States  at  61 ;  died 
at  78. 

8.  Martin  Van  Buren.  Was  admitted  to 
the  bar  at  21 ;  United  States  senator  at  39  ; 
governor  of  New  York  at  46  ;  President  of 
the  United  States  at  55  ;  died  at  80. 

9.  William  Henry  Harrison.  Lieuten- 
ant at  19;  captain  at  22;, governor  of  Ter- 
ritory of  Indiana  at  28  ;  battle  of  Tij^pe- 
canoe  at  38  ;  United  States  senator  at  52 ; 
President  at  67. 


PRESIDENTS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.      175 

10.  John  Tyler.  Graduated  at  college  at 
16 ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  19 ;  Vh-ginia 
Legislature  at  21 ;  governor  of  Virginia  at 
35  ;  United  States  senator  at  37  ;  President 
at  51 ;  died  at  72. 

11.  James  K.  Polk.  Graduated  at  college 
at  23  ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  25  ;  Tennessee 
Legislature  at  28  ;  governor  of  Tennessee  at 
44 ;  President  of  the  United  States  at  49  ; 
died  at  54. 

12.  Zachary  Taylor.  Was  on  his  father's 
plantation  till  24 ;  first  lieutenant  at  24 ; 
captain  at  26 ;  major  at  28 ;  lieutenant- 
colonel  at  35  ;  colonel  at  48  ;  brigadier-gen- 
eral at  54  ;  major-g;eneral  at  62  ;  war  with 
Mexico  from  62  to  64 ;  President  of  the 
United  States  at  GG ;  died  at  67. 

13.  Millard  Fillmore.  Spent  four  years 
at  wool-carding ;  commenced  the  study  of 
law  at  19  ;  commenced  practice  at  bar  at  23  ; 
admitted  attorney  at  27  ;  admitted  counsellor 


176  TALKS    WITH  MY  BOYS. 

Supreme  Court  at  29  ;  member  of  Congress 
at  33  ;  President  of  the  United  States  at  50  ; 
died  at  74. 

14.  Franklin    Peirce.      Graduated    from 
college  at    20 ;    admitted  to  the  bar  at  23 
member  of  Congress  at  29  ;  man-ied  at  30 
United  States  senator  at  33  ;  colonel  at  42 
brigadier-general   at   43 ;    President    of   the 
United  States  at  50  ;  died  at  65. 

15.  James  Buchanan.  Was  admitted  to 
the  bar  at  21 ;  member  of  Congress  at  30  ; 
minister  to  Russia  at  41 ;  United  States 
senator  at  43  ;  Secretary  of  State  at  54 ; 
minister  to  England  at  62  ;  President  of  the 
United  States  at  65  ;  died  at  77. 

16.  Abraham  Lincoln.  On  his  father's 
farm  till  17  ;  made  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  on 
a  flat-boat  as  hired  hand  at  19  ;  commanded  a 
company  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  at  23  ; 
soon  after  began  to  study  law ;  Legislature 
of  Illinois  at  25  ;  licensed  to  practice  law  at 


PRESIDENTS   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES.      177 

27  ;  member  of  Congress  at  38  ;  canvassed 
Illinois  with  Douglass  at  49  ;  President  of 
the  United  States  at  51 ;  died  by  the  hand 
of  the  assassin  at  56. 

17.  Andrew  Johnson.  Apprentice  to  a 
tailor  from  10  to  16  ;  taught  himself  to  read 
while  apprentice ;  journeyman  tailor  from 
16  to  18  ;  married  at  19  ;  alderman  at  20 ; 
mayor  at  23  ;  Legislature  at  27  ;  state  sen- 
ator at  33 ;  member  of  Congress  at  35 ; 
governor  of  Tennessee  at  45  ;  United  States 
senator  at  49 ;  President  of  the  United 
States  at  57  ;  died  at  67. 

18.  U.  S.  Grant.  West  Point  at  21; 
Mexican  War  at  24 ;  brevet  first  lieutenant 
and  captain  ;  captain  in  Oregon  at  31 ;  colo- 
nel 21st  Illinois  Volunteers  at  39  ;  brigadier- 
general  at  39  ;  major-general  at  40 ;  Lee's 
surrender  at  43  ;  President  at  47  ;  died  at  63. 

19.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes.  Graduated 
from  college  at  20  ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at 

12 


178  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 

23  ;  city  solicitor  at  36  ;  major  at  39  ;  lieu- 
tenant-colonel at  40  ;  bre vetted  major-gen- 
eral at  42  ;  member  of  Congress  at  42  ;  gov- 
ernor of  Ohio  at  45  ;  President  at  56. 

20.  James  A.  Garfield.  Driver  on  Ei'ie 
Canal  at  17  ;  boatman  before  18  ;  entered  an 
academy,  boarding  himself,  at  18 ;  taught 
school  at  18  ;  entered  college  at  21 ;  gradu- 
ated at  25  ;  president  of  Hiram  College  at 
26  ;  state  senator  at  28  ;  colonel  at  30  ;  com- 
manded brigade  at  30 ;  brigadier-general  at 
31 ;  major-general  at  31 ;  member  of  Con- 
gress at  32  ;  President  at  49  ;  died  by  the 
hand  of  an  assassin  at  49. 

21.  Chester  A.  Arthur.  Graduated  at 
18  ;  admitted  to  the  bar  at  21 ;  quartermas- 
ter-general state  of  New  York  at  32  ;  col- 
lector of  New  York  at  43 ;  elected  Vice- 
President  at  50  ;  President  at  51. 

Average  dates,  so  far  as  given  above,  of 
the  Presidents  :  — 


PRESIDENTS   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES.      179 

Average  age. 

11  Graduated  from  College     .        .  20  jts.  5  mos. 

12  Admitted  to  the  bar    .         .        .  23   "      6     " 
D  Married 27   " 

11  Member  of  Congress  or  Conti- 
nental Congress        .         .        .  32   "    11     " 
6  United  States  senator  .        .        .  39  " 
3  Member  of  Cabinet      .        .        .  50  "      8    " 
21  President  of  the  United  States  .  54  "      3    " 

19  Died 71   " 

Youngest  President,  U.  S.    Grant  47   " 
Oldest   President,  W.    H.   Harri- 
son   .        .        .        .        .        .  67  " 

Died    youngest,    James    A.    Gar- 
field    49  " 

Died  oldest,  John  Adams        .        .  90  " 

Married  youngest,  A.  Johnson       .  19   ** 
Married  oldest,  J.  Q.  Adams  and 

Franklin  Pierce        .        .        .  30  " 


180  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 


XIX. 

FACTS   AND  DATES  IN  THE   LIVES* OF 
DISTINGUISHED   MEN. 

A  FEW  days  ago  I  gave  you  some  facts 
and  dates  in  regard  to  the  Presidents  of 
the  United  States.  Today  we  will  consider 
similar  facts  and  dates  in  regard  to  eighteen 
distinguished  men,  scholarly  men,  a  majority 
of  them  presidents  of  colleges,  others  men 
in  public  or  political  life.  By  placing  these 
facts  upon  the  blackboard  in  a  tabulated  form, 
in  the  several  rooms,  your  teachers  will  be 
able  to  draw  important  generalizations  from 
them. 

I  have  selected  prominent  men  who  have 
attained  distinction  within  the  last  fifty  years, 
in  political  and  educational  life. 


FACTS    AND    DATES.  181 

1.  Francis  Wayland.  Graduatcid  from 
Union  College  at  17  ;  studied  medicine  three 
years  ;  theology  at  Andover  one  year ;  tutoi! 
Union  College  at  21 ;  pastor  First  Baptist 
Church,  Boston,  at  25 ;  professor  mathe- 
matics and  natural  philosophy  at  Union 
College  at  30 ;  president  Brown  University 
at  31 ;  died  at  69. 

2.  Barnas  Sears.  Graduated  from  Brown 
University  at  23  ;  finished  theological  course 
at  Newton  at  27  ;  pastor  in  Hartford  2  years  ; 
professor  theological  institution  at  29  ;  went 
to  Europe  at  31 ;  professor  at  Newton  and 
president  from  34  to  46  ;  secretary  Board  of 
Education  of  Massachusetts  at  46  ;  president 
Brown  University  at  53 ;  agent  Peabody 
Educational  Fund  at  65  ;  died  at  78. 

3.  E.G.Robinson.  Graduated  at  Brown 
University  at  23,  in  the  famous  class  of  1838  ; 
ordained  at  27 ;  professor  in  Theological 
Seminary  at  Covington,  Ky.,  at  31 ;  and  at 


182  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

Rochester  at  37  ;  editor  of  Ghrifitian  Review 
at  44  ;  president  Rochester  Theological  Sem- 
inary at  45  ;  president  of  Brown  University 
at  57. 

4.  Henry  B.  Anthony.  Graduated  at 
Brown  University  at  18 ;  governor  of 
Rhode  Island  at  34 ;  United  States  senator 
from  44  to  69  ;  died  at  69. 

5.  Ambrose  E.  Burnside.  Graduated 
from  West  Point  at  23  ;  major-general  vol- 
unteers at  37  ;  governor  of  Rhode  Island  at 
42 ;  United  States  senator  from  49  to  56 ; 
died  at  56. 

6.  Timothy  D wight.  Graduated  from 
Yale  at  17  ;  tutor  at  Yale  at  19  ;  licensed  to 
preach  at  25  ;  then  worked  on  farm  four  years  ; 
Connecticut  Legislature  at  29  ;  ordained  min- 
ister at  31 ;  president  of  Yale  from  43  to 
65  ;  died  at  65. 

7.  Jeremiah  Day.  Graduated  from  Yale 
at   22 ;  tutor  in   Williams   at   23 ;  tutor  in 


FACTS   AND   DATES.  183 

Yale  at  25  ;  professor  in  Yale  at  26 ;  presi- 
dent of  Yale  from  44  to  73  ;  died  at  94. 

8.  Theodore  D.  Woolsey.  Graduated 
from  Yale  at  19  ;  tutor  in  Yale  at  22  ;  pro- 
fessor in  Yale  at  30 ;  president  from  45  to 
70. 

9.  Cornelius  C.  Felton.  Graduated  from 
Harvard  University  at  20  ;  tutor  in  Harvard 
University  at  22 ;  professor  in  Harvard 
University  at  25 ;  president  of  Harvard 
University  at  53  ;  died  at  55. 

10.  Charles  William  Eliot.  Graduated 
from  Harvard  University  at  19 ;  tutor  in 
Harvard  University  at  20  ;  assistant  professor 
in  Harvard  University  at  24 ;  professor  of 
chemistry  in  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  at  31 ;  president  of  Harvard 
University  at  35. 

11.  Jared  Sparks.  Graduated  from  Har- 
vard University  at  26  ;  minister  at  Baltimore 
from  30  to  34 ;  editor  I^orth  American  Re- 


184  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

view  from  34  to  41 ;  professor  in  Harvard 
University  from  50  to  60  ;  president  of  Har- 
vard University  from  60  to  63 ;  principal 
writings  from  39  to  65  ;  died  at  77. 

12.  Edward  Everett.  Graduated  from 
Harvard  University  at  17  ;  tutor  in  Harvard 
University  at  18  ;  ordained  at  20  ;  appointed 
professor  in  Harvard  University  at  21 ; 
studied  two  years  in  Europe ;  commenced 
duties  as  professor  of  Greek  at  23  ;  mar- 
ried at  28  ;  member  of  Congress  from  31  to 
41 ;  governor  of  Massachusetts  from  42  to 
46 ;  minister  to  England  from  47  to  52 ; 
president  of  Harvard  University  from  52 
to  55  ;  Secretary  of  State  from  59  to  60 ; 
United  States  senator  from  61  to  62  ;  died 
at  71. 

13.  Daniel  Webster.  Graduated  from 
Dartmouth  College  at  19  ;  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  23  ;  member  of  Congi*ess  from  31  to 
35  ;  famous  Dartmouth  College  case  at  35  ; 


FACTS   AND    DATES.  185 

Plymouth  anniversaiy  discourse  at  38 ;  dis- 
course at  laying  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument  at  43  ;  discourse  at 
the  completion  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument  at 
61  ;  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson  at  44 ; 
United  States  senator  from  45  to  57  ;  great 
speech  in  reply  to  Hayne  at  48 ;  Secretary 
of  State  at  58  ;  7th  of  March  compromise 
speech  at  68  ;  died  at  70. 

14.  Henry  Clay.  Admitted  to  the  bar 
at  20  ;  Kentucky  Legislature  at  25  ;  United 
States  senate  at  29  ;  in  senate  at  different 
times  sixteen  years  ;  Secretary  of  State  at  48  ; 
died  at  75. 

15.  Rufus  Choate.  Graduated  from 
Dartmouth  College  at  20  ;  began  the  practice 
of  law  at  25  ;  member  of  Congress  at  33  ; 
United  States  senate  from  42  to  46  ;  died  at 
60. 

16.  Horace  Greeley.  Learned  printer's 
trade  from  15  to  19 ;  went  to  New  York  at 


186  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

20 ;  began  Morning  Post,  the  first  penny 
daily  ever  published,  at  22  ;  founded  the  JSFew 
Yorker  at  23  ;  edited  the  Jeffersonian  at 
27  ;  edited  Log  Cabin  at  29  ;  founded  the 
jSfew  Yorh  Tribune  at  30.  He  had  no 
great  success  till  he  was  30  ;  wrote  "  History 
of  the  American  Conflict "  from  53  to  55  ; 
candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States 
at  61 ;  died  at  61. 

17.  Louis  Agassiz.  Studied  at  Brienne, 
College  of  Lausanne,  Zurich  Medical 
School,  17  and  18  ;  Universities  of  Heidel- 
berg and  Munich  four  years ;  professor  of 
natural  history  at  Neufchatel  at  25  ;  pub- 
lished his  great  work  on  fossil  fishes  (5  vols.) 
from  23  to  33 ;  professor  zoology  and 
geology  of  Lawrence  Scientific  School  at 
Cambridge  from  41  to  68  ;  died  at  68. 

18.  Horace  Mann.  Graduated  from 
Brown  University  at  25  ;  admitted  to  the  bar 
at  27  ;  Massachusetts  house   of  representa- 


FACTS   AND   DATES.  187 

tives  at  32 ;  Massachusetts  senate  at  37  ; 
secretary  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education 
from  41  to  52  ;  member  of  Congress  at  52  ; 
president  of  Antioch  College  from  56  to  63  ; 
died  at  63. 

Of  the  foregoing  18  persons,  11  were  pres- 
idents of  colleges,  6  were  in  political  life,  1 
was  a  teacher. 


Average 

age. 

13  Graduated  at  college  . 

20 

yrs. 

6  mos 

10  Admitted  to  bar,  or    ordained 

minister 

25 

It    ■ 

5    " 

4  Member  of  Congress    . 

36 

u 

9    " 

6  United  States  senate    .        , 

45 

a 

7  Tutor  of  college    .... 

20 

(( 

8    " 

9  Professor  in  college 

30 

(( 

11  President  of  college    . 

48 

(( 

15  Died 

69 

(( 

Youngest    President     of    college, 

Francis  Wayland 

31 

(( 

Oldest  President  of  college,  Jared 

Sparks       

60 

(( 

Youngest  died,  C.   C.   Pelton      . 

55 

« 

Oldest  died,  Jeremiah   Day- 

94 

(( 

188  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

It  will  be  observed  from  the  foresroinor 
summary  that  these  distinguished  persons 
began  life,  on  an  average,  early.  Seven  of 
them  were  tutors  in  college,  on  an  average, 
before  they  were  twenty-one  years  of  age ; 
the  youngest  when  he  was  eighteen,  the 
oldest  at  twenty-three. 


TWO   YANKEE   BOTS.  189 


XX. 

TWO    YANKEE    BOYS. 

"  IIIASTEE,  please   show  me   how  to   do 

^^   this  sum?" 

"  What  is  it  ?    Let  me  see  it." 

"  Here  it  is,  on  this  piece  o'  paper.  I  don't 
know  as  you  can  read  it." 

The  problem  read  as  follows  :  "  A  certain 
man  died,  leaving  a  will  which  provided 
that  if  at  his  death  he  should  have  only  a 
son,  the  son  should  receive  two  thirds  of 
his  estate  and  the  widow  one  third ;  but  if 
he  should  leave  only  a  daughter,  the  widow 
should  receive  two  thirds  and  the  daughter 
one  third.  It  happened,  however,  that  he 
left  both  a  son  and  a  daughter,  by  which,  in 
equity,  the  widow  received  $2,400  less  than 


190  TALKS    WITH  MY   BOYS. 

she  would  have  had  if  there  had  been  only 
a  daughter ;  how  much  would  she  have  re- 
ceived if  there  had  been  only  a  son  ?  "  * 

"Where  did  you  get  this  problein,  Dan- 
iel?" 

"  A  fellow  sent  it  over  to  me  from  the 
Quabbin  district.  He  said  that  none  of 
the  boys  over  there  could  do  it,  and  the 
master  could  not  do  it,  either." 

"Well,  Daniel,  I  will  try  it  when  I  get  a 
few  minutes'  leisure." 

This  occurred  in  the  old  school-house,  in 

the  Center  district  of  N ,  Mass.,  in  the 

winter  of  1848-9. 

For  two  days  the  master  labored  on  the 
problem,  and  then,  upon  Daniel's  inquiry,  he 
said  he  did  not  believe  it  could  be  done.  He 
had  tried  it  in  all  ways,  but  could  not  make 
it  prove ;  whereupon  a  boy  named  Levi,  a 

*  This  problem  came  from  an  old  English  arithmetic 
of  a  century  ago. 


TWO   YANKEE   BOYS.  191 

lad  about  fifteen  years  old,  asked  if  he  could 
try  it. 

"Yes,"  said  the  master,  "you  can  try  it, 
Levi ;  but  you  will  hardly  succeed,  I  think." 

In  about  five  minutes,  Levi  said,  "Here, 
master,  I  have  it,"  and  modestly  handed  up 
his  slate. 

This  was  the  solution  :  — 

The  daughter  would  have       ...        1  share. 
The  widow  twice  as  much      .        .        .        2    " 
The  son  twice  the  widow's  share   .        .        4    " 

The  whole         ....        7    " 

Now  the  widow  received  |  of  the  estate, 
but  if  there  had  been  only  a  daughter,  she 
would  have  had  |  of  it ;  |  of  the  estate  minus 
^-  of  it  =  j\  of  it ;  therefore  i^\  of  the  estate 
=  $2,400.  Then  ^  will  equal  $300,  and 
the  estate  will  equal  $6,300.  The  question 
is.  How  much  would  she  have  received  if 
there  had  been  only  a  son?  That  means, 
what  would  1  of  the  estate  be  ?  It  would  be 
$2,100.     Answer. 


192  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

"  It  proves,  too  ;  see  here.     The  estate  was 
divided  this  way  :  — 


Daughter  received  \,  which  is     .        .        . 
"Widow  received  |,  which  is         .    ■    .        .       1,800 
Son  received  -f ,  which  is       ...        .       3,000 

Whole  estate ^6,300 

If  there  had  been  a  daughter  only,  the 
widow  would  have  |,  or  $4,200.  |4,200 — 
$1,800  =  $2,400." 

""Well  done,  Levi !    You  are  a  smart  hoy  J" 

"  Oh,  that  is  nothin'.  I  can  do  harder 
sums  than  that." 

Daniel  was  delighted  that  some  one  of  his 
school-fellows  had  solved  the  problem,  for 
now  he  could  brag  of  the  smartness  of  his 
school,  and  its  superiority  to  the  school  in 
the  Quabbin  district. 

In  due  time,  therefore,  the  solution  was 
forwarded  to  Quabbin.  There  it  was  studied 
carefully  by  teacher  and  pupils.  The  boy 
who   had   tried  the  hardest,   and  spent  the 


TWO   YANKEE   BOYS.  193 

most  hours  over  it  in  vain,  was  named  Cal- 
vin. He  now  felt  decidedly  chagrined  at 
his  failure  to  solve  it.  It  was  certainly  easy 
enough  after  you  knew  how. 

The  winter  passed  away.  Late  in  the 
spring  Calvin  found  an  opportunity  to  go 
over  to  the  Center  district  one  warm  after- 
noon. He  had  never  forgotten  the  problem, 
nor  had  his  admiration  for  the  boy  who  per- 
formed it  weakened  as  time  passed  on.  Ar- 
riving, therefore,  in  the  village,  he  diligently 
inquired  for  a  boy  named  Levi . 

At  last  he  found  a  man  who  knew  him. 

"  Do  you  see  that  large  white  building  over 
there  —  a  shoe-shop  ?  " 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Well,  that  is  n't  the  place ;  but  you  go 
around  through  the  lane  beyond  that  white 
shop,  and  back  in  the  rear  you  will  find  a 
small,  one -story,  wood -colored  building, 
with  a  basement  on  the  back  side ;  down  in 
13 


194  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

that  basement  you  will  find  Levi  pegging 
shoes." 

Calvin  lost  no  time  in  following  these  ex- 
plicit directions,  and  opening  the  door,  he 
looked  in  and  inquired, — 

"  Is  your  name  Levi  ?  " 

"Yes,  my  name  is  Levi.     What  of  it?" 

"Well,  did  you  do  a  sum  last  winter?" 
and  he  described  the  problem. 

"  Yes,  I  did  that ;  that's  nothing." 

And  so  these  two  boys  were  now  intro- 
duced to  each  other.  Their  families  were 
both  poor,  and  though  not  yet  sixteen,  they 
were  ol)liged  to  earn  their  living,  —  the  one 
on  a  farm,  the  other  pegging  shoes. 

Calvin  was  a  well-formed  boy,  handsome, 
with  a  ruddy  face,  black  hair,  and  black  eyes. 

Levi  was  light  complexioned,  with  light 
hair,  features  far  from  regular,  not  hand- 
some, sedate -looking,  and  generally  wearing 
a  cross  scowl  upon  his  face.     When  his  face 


TWO    YANKEE   BOYS.  195 

lighted  up,  however,  as  it  would  to  his 
friends,  or  especially  when  he  was  particu- 
larly pleased  with  some  success  of  a  friend, 
he  wore  a  genial,  pleasant  smile,  which 
really  made  his  features  handsome  and  win- 
ning. 

These  boys,  thus  introduced  to  each  other, 
and  now  to  the  reader,  soon  became  firm 
friends,  and  remain  so  to  this  day.  Their 
life  brings  its  lesson  of  what  a  New  England 
boy  can  do,  if  he  only  have  courage  and 
perseverance. 

They  met  many  times  during  the  years 
between  1850  and  1860 ;  and  when  the  war 
of  the  rebellion  commenced,  it  found  them 
both  practicing  law  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
They  at  once  gave  up  their  business  and  en- 
tered the  army.  One  raised  a  regiment  and 
was  appointed  colonel,  and  the  other  commis- 
sioned major ;  and  so  they  went  to  the  war. 
Think  you,  when  they  were  bivouacking  on 


196  TALKS    WITH   MY  BOYS. 

the  sands  of  the  Old  Dominion,  some  warm 
night,  with  the  full  moon  shining  down  with 
its  clear  and  cahn  light,  reminding  them  of 
their  childhood's  homes  in  the  old  Bay  State, 
the  thought  of  the  arithmetical  puzzle  did 
not  come  up  in  their  remembrance,  and  was 
not  the  story  of  how  they  became  acquainted 
with  each  other  often  told  to  their  compan- 
ions-in-arms  ? 

I  have  said  that  they  were  both  poor ;  yet 
after  getting  a  good  common-school  educa- 
tion, and  a  few  terms  at  an  academy,  they 
both  studied  law.  Calvin  studied  with  Judge 
Chapin,  in  Worcester,  and  in  due  time  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  began  his  practice 
there.  Afterward  he  went  to  New  York, 
and  there  entered  the  arena,  striving  for 
legal  and  political  distinction.  He  has  now 
been  for  many  years  a  distinguished  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New 
York.       When    he   was    studying  law,   he 


TWO   YANKEE   BOYS.  197 

gained  his  livelihood  by  practicing  in  the 
police  courts,  where  he  achieved  a  distin- 
guished success. 

Levi  began  the  study  of  law  in  Worcester, 
but  afterward  entered  the  then  famous  law 
school  at  Balston  Spa,  N.  Y.,  which  was 
soon  moved  to  Poughkeepsie.  On  his  grad- 
uation he  was  offered  at  once  a  professorship 
in  the  law  school,  which  he  refused,  and 
going  to  New  York  he  "  put  out  his  shingle  " 
at  156  Broadway.  Imagine  a  young  man, 
without  experience,  quiet,  modest,  but  per- 
severing, an  entire  stranger  in  the  great 
city,  attempting  to  earn  a  livelihood  at  the 
bar.  But  that  livelihood  he  did  earn  the  very 
first  year,  and  he  is  now  having  a  lucrative 
practice.  He  owns  an  elegant  home  in  New 
Jersey,  and  has  educated  a  sister,  who  is  now 
a  successful  lady  physician  in  New  York, 
noted  far  and  wide,  and  a  younger  brother 
who  is  a  distinguished  dentist  in  a  neio;hbor- 
ing  state. 


198  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

In  what  other  country  on  the  globe  could 
such  a  history  have  been  possible?  But  here, 
this  is  only  one  instance  of  success  from 
small  beginnings,  and  every  town  can  fur- 
nish others.  Boys  at  this  day,  who  have 
good  health  and  a  sufficient  amount  of  in- 
dustry and  perseverance,  can  achieve  any 
success  within  the  reach  of  man. 


BOYHOOD   OF   DR.    ELIPHALET   NOTT.       199 


XXI. 

THE  BOYHOOD   OF  DR.   ELIPHALET  NOTT. 

T?EW  subjects  interest  boys  more  than  the 
boyhood   of  distinguished   men.     Few 
convey  more  important   lessons  to  boys   or 
men. 

Among  the  most  noted  men  of  our  coun- 
try may  be  mentioned  Eev.  Eliphalet  Nott, 
D.  D.,  LL.  D.  He  was  born  in  Ashford, 
Conn.,  June  25,  1773,  just  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  American  Revolution.  He 
was  graduated  at  Brown  University,  when  he 
was  twenty-two  years  of  age.  He  was  li- 
censed to  preach  the  same  year,  and  his 
first  pastoral  labors  were  in  Cherry  Valley, 
N.  Y.  From  1798  to  1804  he  was  pastor  of 
a  Presbyterian  church  in  Albany.     Here  he 


200        TALKS  WITH  MY  BOYS. 

acquired  great  celebrity  as  a  pulpit  orator, 
especially  by  a  sermon  on  the  death  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  the  great  statesman,  who 
was  shot  in  a  duel  by  the  noted  Aaron  Burr, 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  Soon 
after  this  he  was  chosen  president  of  Union 
College  at  Schenectady,  which  position  he 
held  for  more  than  sixty  years.  He  there- 
fore educated  a  large  number  of  young 
men,  and  when  he  had  been  president  of  the 
college  for  fifty  years,  six  or  eight  hundred 
gentlemen,  from  all  the  walks  of  life,  who 
had  graduated  under  his  presidency,  came 
together  to  do  him  honor  at  the  Commence- 
ment in  1854. 

He  was  one  of  the  model  teachers  of 
America.  Besides  his  distinction  as  a  pul- 
pit orator  and  a  college  president,  he  gained 
great  note  by  his  practical  inventions,  espe- 
cially in  the  construction  of  stoves  for 
heating    buildings.      By  his   inventions    he 


BOYHOOD   OF   DR.    ELIPHALET   NOTT.       201 

acquired  considerable  wealth,  from  which  he 
contributed  largely  to  the  funds  of  Union 
College. 

What  opportunities  had  this  justly  dis- 
tinguished, truly  learned,  and  eminently 
devout  man  in  his  boyhood  ?  What  was  the 
character  of  his  parents  ? 

His  father  and  his  mother  were  very  ex- 
cellent Christians.  They  were  devout,  con- 
scientious, godly  persons.  They  lived  on 
a  small  farm  of  poor  soil,  in  Southern  Con- 
necticut, until  a  little  while  before  the  birth 
of  this  son,  when  their  house  was  burned 
down,  and,  as  they  had  not  the  means  to 
rebuild  it,  they  sold  their  farm,  and  with  the 
proceeds  bought  a  still  poorer  one,  of  fewer 
acres,  in  an  extreme  corner  of  the  hill  town 
of  Ashford.  It  was  four  miles  from  the  vil- 
lage and  the  church.  During  the  early 
boyhood  of  Eliphalet  his  father  had  no  horse, 
but,  in  bad  weather,  when  they  could  not 


202  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

walk  to  church,  the  family  were  drawn  over 
the  rough  and  hilly  roads  of  that  long  four 
miles  by  their  only  cow.  Yet  they  were 
always  at  church. 

During  one  winter,  Mr.  Nott's  overcoat 
had  become  so  well  worn  that  Mrs.  Nott  told 
her  husband  it  was  not  fit  to  be  worn  to 
church  any  longer.  But  he  had  no  money 
to  buy  a  new  one.  Should  he  stay  away 
from  divine  service  ?  Not  he  !  To  this 
proposition,  neither  he  nor  his  good  wife 
would  assent.  Soon,  however,  the  good 
woman  devised  a  plan  to  free  them  from  the 
difficulty.  She  suggested  to  her  husband 
that  they  could  shear  their  only  "cosset" 
sheep,  and  that  the  fleece  would  furnish  wool 
enough  for  a  new  overcoat. 

"  What ! "  says  the  old  man,  "  shear  the 
cosset  in  January  !     It  will  freeze." 

"  Ah,  no,  it  will  not,"  says  the  good  wife, 
"  I  will  see  to  that :  the  lamb  shall  not 
sufi'er." 


BOYHOOD   OF   DR.    ELIPHALET   NOTT.       203 

She  sheared  the  cosset,  and  then  wrapped 
the  sheep  in  a  blanket  of  burlaps,  well  sewed 
on,  which  kept  it  warm  till  its  wool  had 
grown  again. 

This  fleece  Mrs.  Nott  carded,  spun,  and 
wove  into  cloth,  then  cut  and  made  the  gar- 
ment for  her  husband,  and  it  was  worn  to 
church  on  the  following  Sabbath,* 

But  Eliphalet  contended  not  only  with 
poverty,  but  with  orphanhood.  While  yet 
a  mere  lad,  he  lost  by  death  that  good  father, 
and  also  his  devoted  mother.  The  orphan 
boy  then  went  to  live  with  his  older  brother, 
the  Eev.  Samuel  Nott,  D.  D.,  in  Franklin, 
Conn.  This  brother  had  risen  from  poverty 
and  obscurity,  had  fitted  himself  for  col- 
lege, graduated  at  Yale  when  he  was  nearly 


•  Tradition  says  that  all  this  was  done  within  one 
week's  time,  but  for  the  truth  of  this  I  will  not  vouch. 
It  would  certainly  seem  quite  improbable. 


204  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOYS. 

twenty-seven  years  of  age,  received  from  his 
alma  mater  the  degree  of  D.  D.  five  years 
later,  was  settled  over  the  church  in  Frank- 
lin in  1782,  and  held  the  office  of  pastor  of 
that  church  till  his  death  in  1852,  a  period 
of  seventy  years,  the  full  age  of  man,  — 
^Hhreescore  years  and  ten.^^  "Although  thus 
outliving  his  generation,"  says  his  biogra- 
pher, "7ie  was  feeble  and  sickly  lohen  young." 

It  was  his  son,  Eev.  Samuel  Nott,  who 
was  one  of  that  first  band  of  missionaries 
sent  out  by  the  American  Board  to  India  in 
1812.  President  Nott  died  in  the  ninety- 
third  year  of  his  age.  His  brother  Samuel 
lived  to  be  over  ninety-eight,  and  the  mis- 
sionary Samuel  at  the  time  of  his  death  was 
eighty  one  years  old. 

"  I  have  been  young  and  now  am  old," 
says  the  Psalmist,  "yet  have  I  not  seen  the 
righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging 
bread." 


BOYHOOD  OF  DR.   ELIPHALET  NOTT.       205 

"  Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Lord, 
that  delighteth  greatly  in  his  command- 
ments. His  seed  shall  be  mighty  upon 
earth ;  the  generation  of  the  upright  shall  be 
blessed.^* 


206  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 


XXII. 

PRACTICAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

1^  I  ANY  seem  to  think  that  the  polemic  age 
has  passed,  and  that  this  is  the  period 
of  deeds,  not  words.  How  strange  it  sounds 
that  at  Joseph  Cook's  last  symposium,  the 
most  radical  orthodox  and  the  most  radical 
extreme  from  orthodoxy  failed  to  get  up  a 
discussion  !  Let  the  gauntlet  be  thrown  down 
with  never  so  small  bluster,  there  was  no  dis- 
position to  pick  it  up.  What,  pray,  would 
Cotton  Mather,  or  Eoger  Williams,  or  George 
Fox,  or  —  shall  I  say  it — Jonathan  Edwards 
or  Leonard  Woods  have  said  to  such  a  cir- 
cumstance? But  the  times  change,  and  the 
people  change  with  them.  Our  age  has  its 
faults  and  it  has  its  excellences. 

If  there    is  one  lesson  which  it  ought  to 


PKACTICAL   CHRISTIANITY.  207 

learn,  it  is  that  piety  and  right  doing  should' 
never  be  divorced.  The  blessed  Saviour  is 
our  example,  and  "  He  went  about  doing 
good."  So  the  Christian  should  be  distin- 
guished by  the  good  deeds  which  he  does. 

"  Show  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works, 
and  I  will  show  thee  my  faith  by  my  ivorhs" 
says  the  Apostle  James,  when  commenting 
upon  and  explaining  Brother  Paul's  beautiful 
discourse  upon  the  necessity  of  faith  as  the 
cardinal  Christian  virtue.  ^ 

In  a  large  New  England  city  a  few  winters 
ago,  a  gentleman,  not  a  church  member,  late 
one  very  cold  evening  stepped  into  an  eating 
saloon  to  get  a  cup  of  tea.  In  the  front  part 
of  the  saloon,  next  the  street  door,  was  a 
large  stove ;  near  this  stove  had  gathered 
several  newsboys.  Nice,  fresh-fried  dough- 
nuts were  a  specialty  at  this  particular  restau- 
rant, and  those  which  happened  to  be  left 
over  from  yesterday  (called  stale  doughnuts) 


208        TALKS  WITH  MY  BOYS. 

were  sold  at  half  price,  or  one  cent  apiece. 
These  boys  would  therefore  come  in,  buy  a 
"  stale  doughnut,"  and  then,  being  customers, 
would  feel  at  liberty  to  stop  and  warm  by 
the  stove.  This  gentleman,  while  drinking 
his  tea,  observed  the  bright,  active  appear- 
ance of  one  of  these  lads,  who  seemed  to  be 
the  leader  of  the  group,  and  calling  him  to 
himself,  asked  him  if  he  and  his  companions 
would  not  like  to  have  a  fresh  doughnut. 

"  Bet  I  would,  if  I  had  the  chink,"  said 
the  boy. 

"Well,  bring  your  friends  up  to  the  coun- 
ter and  get  one,"  said  the  gentleman. 

"Come  on,  boys,  this  Mister's  going  to 
treat ;  draw  up,  all  of  you." 

The  boys,  with  a  rush,  all  mounted  the 
high  stools  standing  before  the  tall  counter, 
and  began  to  crack  their  jokes  as  only  street 
gamins  know  how  to  do. 

The  gentleman  ordered  the  waiter  to  give 


PRACTICAL    CimiSTrANITY.  209 

each  boy  a  cup  of  tea  and  two  fresh  dough- 
nuts. Imagine  —  if  you  are  acquainted  with 
these  newsboys  of  the  street ;  otherwise  you 
cannot — those  six  boys  drawn  up  in  front  of 
that  counter,  each  with  his  cup  of  tea  before 
him  and  a  long  twisted  doughnut  in  each  hand, 
taking  first  a  bite  from  one,  then  from  the 
other,  then  laying  them  both  down  and  sip- 
ping his  cup  of  tea,  lifted  with  both  hands. 

Their  feet  and  fingers  may  have  been  half 
frozen,  but  their  tongues  were  limber,  and 
the  jokes  went  round,  sparkling  with  genuine 
wit.  After  observing  them  for  a  while,  and 
paying  the  bill,  my  friend  bade  the  boys 
good  night,  and  started  towards  the  door. 

Just  then,  quick  as  thought,  as  though  a 
new  idea  had  just  entered  his  mind,  the  lad, 
the  leader  of  the  boys,  spoke  out  quick  and 
sharp,  "  Say,  Mister,  do  you  keep  a  chwchf  " 
Obviously  he  knew  what  was  meant  by  jprac- 
tical  Christianity. 
U 


210  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 


XXIII. 

HABITS   OF  INDUSTRY. 

T  HAVE  given  to  this  school  many  "Talks," 
first  and  last,  and  I  fear  most  of  them 
have  been  designed  more  particularly  for 
the  older  classes.  But  this  morning  I  pro- 
pose to  address  the  younger  boys,  and  if  the 
older  ones  find  anything  interesting  to  listen 
to  they  are  welcome  to  it.  I  often  have 
occasion  to  think  that  many  boys  suppose 
their  education  is  to  be  received  wholly 
at  school.  Perhaps  this  thought  is  natural 
to  them,  but  it  is  not  true.  Your  education 
is  quite  as  much,  if  not  more,  dependent 
upon  what  you  do,  and  what  you  learn,  out 
of  school  as  in  school.  The  home,  the 
shop,  the  street,  the  rail  car  are  schools  foi 


HABITS    OF    INDUSTRY.  211 

you,  where  you  may  add  materially  to  the 
stock  of  knowledge  and  mental  discipline 
which  you  acquire  at  school ;  or,  by  a  wrong 
course,  you  may  overthrow  and  vitiate  what 
good  might  otherwise  be  obtained  from  your 
school  work.  Let  me  point  out  one  way  in 
which  you  may  improve  yourselves  out  of 
school. 

You  all  need  to  learn  to  be  industrious. 
You  should  all  have  some  duties  to  do 
at  home,  every  day.  These  duties  should 
always  be  performed  with  care  and  fidelity. 
You  should  remember  that  you  are  indebted 
to  your  parents,  and  brothers,  and  sisters, 
for  the  comforts  of  life,  and  each  should  have 
a  desire  to  help  in  family  afiairs,  to  have 
your  little  duties  to  perform,  which  you 
would  attend  to  scrupulously  and  conscien- 
tiously. 

The  small  boy  upon  the  farm  has  the 
best  opportunity  to  learn  these  home  lessons 


212  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

of  industry.  He  will  bring  in  the  wood 
from  the  wood-house,  feed  the  hens,  water 
the  horse,  and  in  many  ways  make  himself 
a  useful  member  of  the  household.  Habits 
of  industry  are  among  the  most  valuable 
lessons  to  be  acquired  in  early  youth. 

Sometimes  this  industry  may  not  be  needed 
in  the  family  in  the  ordinary  manner,  but 
there  may  be  special  reasons  and  particular 
ways  of  exercising  it,  which  will  have  a  vast 
influence  upon  the  future  life  of  the  boy. 
It  not  unfrequently  happens  that  a  boy  may 
show  his  love  to  his  sister  or  his  mother  by 
some  skillful  work,  devised  and  executed  by 
him,  which  wUl  be  of  more  service  to  him 
than  to  them.  A  few  evenings  since  I  was 
thinking  over  this  subject,  and  a  number  of 
illustrations  came  to  my  mind,  which  I  wished 
to  give  to  3^ou.  In  order  that  I  might  not 
forget  them,  and  that  I  might  relate  them  in 
the  most  graphic  manner,  I  wrote  them  out, 


HABITS    OF    INDUSTRY.  213 

and  now  propose  to  read  them  to  you.  The 
first  one  is  designed  to  illustrate  a  boy's  love 
for  his  sister,  and  tells  what  means  he  found 
for  carrying  out  his  purpose  of  securing  foi 
her  a  new  pen-knife.  I  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  persons  mentioned  in  the  story,  and 
can  vouch  for  the  truth  of  it. 

I  have  written  it,  as  though  told  by  the 
sister  who  was  a  school-teacher  to  her  school- 
boys. 

MY  NEW  PEK-KNIFE. 

A  TRUE  STORY  FOR  BOYS. 

Now,  my  dear  boys,  I  want  to  tell  you  a 
true  story.  It  is  not  one  of  those  tales 
which  claim  to  be  "  founded  on  fact,"  but,  as 
I  know  you  like  truth  better  than  fiction,  my 
story  shall  be  wholly  true. 

You  must  know,  then,  that  my  brother 
and  I  were  orphan  children.  Our  dear 
father  died  when  we  were  quite  young.     We 


214  TALKS   WITH   IVIY   BOYS. 

lived  at  grandfathers.  "We  had  an  older 
sister,  Ruth,  who  lived  with  our  mother. 
My  brother  and  I  loved  each  other  dearly, 
and  shared  each  other's  joys  and  sorrows. 

When  I  was  fifteen  years  old  I  began  my 
life  work  of  teaching  school.  It  was  many 
years  ago,  and  every  teacher  was  obliged  to 
make  and  mend  the  pens  for  the  scholars, 
for  steel  pens  had  not  then  come  into  use, 
but  quills  were  always  used  for  writing.  It 
was  necessary  for  me,  therefore,  to  have  a 
pen-knife.  My  motlier  bought  me  one,  a 
cheap  one,  paying  twelve  and  a  half  cents  for 
it.  The  sides  of  the  handle  were  made  of 
horn,  and  were  transparent.  Under  the 
horn  was  a  motto,  on  each  side.  On  the  one 
side  was  the  motto,  — 

"A  friend  in  need  is  a  friend  indeed," 

On  the  other  side  was  the  motto,  — 

"  Fair  and  softly  goes  far  in  a  day." 


HABITS   OF   INDUSTRY.  215 

I  took  my  knife  to  our  good  Uncle  Buf- 
fum,  our  great-uncle,  being  brother  to  our 
grandmother,  that  he  might  sharpen  it. 

He  honed  it,  and  strapped  it,  and  tried  it 
again  and  again,  but  could  not  get  a  good 
edge  upon  it.  He  said  it  was  "good  for 
nothing ;  it  was  soft." 

Well,  my  brother,  who  was  four  years 
younger  than  I  was,  sat  and  watched  Uncle 
Bulfum  work  away,  trying  in  vain  to  get  a 
good  edge  upon  the  knife.  When  he  saw 
that  the  knife  was  not  fit  to  make  a  pen  with, 
he  went  away  very  sad,  thinking  how  much 
he  wished  it  were  in  his  power  to  buy  his 
dear  sister  a  better  knife.  But  he  had  no 
money.  We  were  all  poor.  We  lived  on  a 
farm  four  or  five  miles  from  any  village. 
But,  you  know,  boys,  that  where  there  is  a 
will  there  is  a  way.  One  of  the  good  mottoes 
for  ambitious  youth  is  this,  — 

"  Find  a  way  or  make  a  way." 


216  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

So  my  brother  thouglit  tind  thought  upon 
the  subject,  till  he  found  a  way  to  get  me  a 
new  knife.  He  caught  a  woodchuck,  took  off 
its  skin,  and  asked  his  Uncle  Richard  to  tan 
the  skin  for  him.  This  was  done  by  taking 
off  the  hair  in  wood  ashes,  and  then  placing 
the  skin,  properly  prepared,  in  soft  soap. 
After  it  had  remained  in  the  soap  a  sufficient 
length  of  time,  it  was  taken  out,  and  finally 
became  a  soft,  nice  piece  of  good  leather. 

Then,  Uncle  Buffum,  who  was  a  shoemaker, 
a  watchmaker,  a  general  tinker  (a  most 
ingenious  man),  was  applied  to,  with  the 
request  that  from  this  skin  he  would  cut  out 
the  strands  for  a  whip-lash. 

At  length  that  was  done,  and  my  little 
brother,  then  between  eleven  and  twelve 
years  old,  went  to  work  to  braid  a  long  whip- 
lash, such  as  the  farmers  use  in  driving  their 
oxen. 

It  was  no  easy  task,  but  the  boy's  love  for 


HABTTS    OF    INDUSTRY.  217 

his  sister  triumphed,  and  erelong  he  had  a 
nice  whip-lash,  some  four  feet  long,  all 
finished,  and  properly  tied  at  the  end. 

Now  he  waited  for  an  opportunity  to  go 
to  the  village  and  sell  it.  Soon  the  time 
came  when  a  larsje  haa:  of  salt  was  needed 
to  salt  the  hay,  which  was  rapidly  filling  the 
barn,  and  my  brother  was  dispatched  to  the 
village  to  obtain  it. 

Hastily  running  up-stairs  to  his  room,  he 
took  the  lash  and  carried  it  with  him  to  the 
village  store.  Having  purchased  the  salt, 
and  seeing  it  placed  in  the  hind  end  of  the 
farm  wagon,  he  tremblingly  exhibited  to  the 
store-keeper  his  white,  well-braided  whip- 
lash, and  asked  him  if  he  would  buy  it. 

"  Where  did  you  get  it  ? "  asked  the  mer- 
chant. 

"I  braided  it  myself,"  said  the  boy. 

"Did  you,  indeed  !  You  must  be  a  pretty 
smart  boy.  What  do  you  want  to  buy  with 
it ;  some  candv  ?  " 


218  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

"  No,  sir.  I  want  to  get  a  first-rate  pen- 
knife for  my  sister ;  a  good  one,  one  of  your 
'Rodgers,  Cutlers  to  Her  Majesty,' knives." 

So  the  bargain  was  concluded,  and  the 
lash  was  exchanged  for  a  good,  black- 
handled,  Rodgers  pen-knife,  the  price  of 
which  was  two  shillings,  that  is,  thirty- 
three  cents. 

I  need  not  tell  you  how  pleased  my 
brother  was,  how  many  times  he  took  that 
knife  out  of  his  pocket  on  the  way  home,  to 
look  at  it,  or  how  he  seized  the  first  opportu- 
nity to  get  Uncle  BuiFum  to  sharpen  its  edge. 

It  was  finally  honed  and  strapped,  until 
Uncle  Bufium  said,  "There,  that  will  cut 
like  buttermilleck.  It  is  a  piece  of  excellent 
steel ;  a  first-rate  knife." 

How  happy  was  my  brother,  how  anxious 
he  was  to  give  it  to  me ;  and  when  he  did 
present  it,  with  what  pride  he  said,  — 

"  There  ;  there  is  a  knife  that  will  mend  a 


HABITS   OF   INDUSTRY.  219 

pen.  It  is  real  'Rodgers,  Cutlers,'  and  you 
may  throw  away  that  old  soft  thing  that 
mother  bought.  I  am  not  going  to  have 
7)iy  sister  mend  pens  with  such  a  mean  old 
knife.  Here,  take  this  ;  I  bought  it  for  you  ; 
it  is  yours." 

But  I  did  not  throw  the  old  knife  away. 
I  kept  it ;  and  I  kept  the  other,  too,  as  a 
precious  love-token  from  my  brother.  How 
many  pens  I  have  made  and  mended  with 
the  "Rodgers "  knife,  I  cannot  tell.  But 
during  those  years  before  the  advent  of  steel 
pens,  I  always  used  it,  and  no  other.  Then  I 
laid  the  dear  knife  away  beside  the  other, 
and  there  the  two  lie  today  in  one  of  my 
little  pasteboard  boxes  in  a  closet.  My 
dear  boys,  the  good  Apostle  John  said, 
"  Little  children,  love  one  another." 

There  are  but  few  pleasanter  sights  in  this 
world  than  a  family  of  children  where  love 


220  TALKS    WITH    MY   BOYS. 

prevails,  and  where  all  seek  the  good  of 
others,  and  show  their  love  for  one  another 
by  working  and  planning  and  contriving  to 
make  each  other  happy. 

I  think  you  wili  agree  with  me  that  the 
story  is  a  good  one,  and  the  spirit  of  it  is 
worthy  of  imitation. 

Sometimes  this  habit  of  industry  may  be 
exercised  by  an  inventive  genius  in  devising 
ways  to  obtain  money  for  general  or  par- 
ticular benevolent  purposes.  My  next  story 
will  illustrate  what  I  mean,  in  this  direction. 

It  is  entitled  — 

FIRST  EAEK,  THEN"  GIVE. 

"Papa,  please  give  me  ten  cents?  " 

"  What  for,  my  son  ?  " 

"To  put  in  the  contribution-box." 

"Here  is  five  cents  ;  that  will  do  today." 

"Thank  you,  papa." 

And  the  little  fellow  skipped  along  by  his 


HABITS    OF   INDUSTRY.  221 

father's    side,    going   to   church   one    bright 
Sunday  morning  several  years  ago. 

But  I  could  hardly  listen  to  the  sermon, 
so  absorbed  was  I  in  thinking  of  that  little 
boy.  He  was  a  bright  little  fellow,  with 
blue  eyes  and  curly  hair,  and  I  felt  from  his 
very  looks  and  elastic  step  that  he  was  a 
good  boy.  But  I  want  to  tell  you  about  an- 
other little  boy,  who  really  envied  him,  as  he 
danced  along  by  his  father's  side.  This  little 
fellow,  whose  name  was  Henry,  was  on  his  way 
to  Sunday  school  that  same  morning,  when 
he  met  with  an  accident  which  obliged  him  to 
turn  about  and  go  home  again.  He  had  six 
cents  in  his  pocket  to  put  in  the  collection 
that  day,  to  help  buy  new  books  for  the 
Sabbath-school  library.  But  his  father  had 
not  given  him  the  money,  for  he  was  poor. 
The  Sunday  school  which  Henry  attended 
was  a  small  one,  in  a  little  mission  church,  in 
the   suburbs   of    one  of  our   New   England 


222  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

cities,  and  was  at  this  time  making  a  great 

effort  to  get  an  addition  to  its  small  library. 

The  superintendent  had  told  the  childi'en  that 

it  was  far  better  for  them  to  earn  the  money 

which  they  gave  than  to  have  it   given  to 

them  by  their  parents.     He  told  them  of  the 

little  boy  who  collected  a  good  sum  of  money 

for    the    missionaries    by    carrying    around 

among  his   friends    an   ox's   horn,  with  the 

large  end  plugged  up  and  a  slit  in  it  where 

the  money  could  be  dropped  in,  which  was 

labeled,  — 

"  Once  I  was  the  horn  of  an  ox, 
But  now  I  am  a  missionary  box." 

He  advised  the  boys  and  girls  to  try  to 
earn  the  money  they  brought,  and  gave  some 
suggestions  how  it  could  be  done.  I  do  not 
know  how  many,  if  any,  followed  those 
suggestions ;  but  I  do  know  that  some  of 
them  invented  plans  of  their  own,  and  earned 
the  money,  and  contributed  liberally  for  that 


HABITS    OF    INDUSTRY.  223 

library.  Let  me  tell  you  how  some  of  the 
boys  did  it. 

Henry  was  a  small  boy,  only  six  years  old. 
He  could  not  do  many  kinds  of  work.  In- 
deed he  could  not  think  for  some  time  of 
any  way  by  which  he  could  earn  a  penny. 
At  last,  he  thought  of  his  way,  and  during 
the  week  preceding  the  Sunday  of  which 
I  have  spoken  he  put  his  plan  in  practice. 

He  went  around  the  neighborhood,  through 
the  streets  and  open  lots,  and  picked  up 
every  bone  and  every  piece  of  paper  that  he 
saw,  and  on  S,aturday  sold  them  to  the  junk 
dealer,  by  which  he  earned  six  cents.  This 
money  he  was  carrying  to  the  Sunday  school 
when  he  overheard  the  little  blue-eyed  boy 
asldng  his  father  for  the  ten  cents.  When 
his  father  gave  him  only  five,  Henry  smiled, 
and  thought  to  himself,  "  Well,  I  have  more 
than  he,  and  I  have  earned  inine;  it  was  not 
given  to  me."     I  am  sorry  to  say  that  just 


224  TALKS    WITH    MY   BOYS. 

then  Heniy  stepped  into  a  hole  in  the  side- 
walk, and  sprained  his  ankle  so  badly  that 
he  could  not  get  to  Sunday  school,  but  was 
obliged  to  go  home.  Yet,  even  in  his  pain, 
he  was  not  to  be  deprived  of  the  pleasure  of 
giving  the  money  he  had  earned,  and  so  sent 
it  along  by  his  sister. 

Now  let  me  tell  you  of  another  boy,  who 
wanted  to  earn  some  money  for  that"  library. 
He  found  another  plan.  He  was  a  little  fel- 
low of  about  eight  years,  and  his  name  was 
Eddie.  His  mother  was  a  widow,  and  earned 
a  scanty  support  for  herself  and  her  children 
by  sewing.  Eddie  asked  his  mother  to  give 
him  some  money  for  the  library,  and  she  was 
obli2:ed  to  tell  him  she  had  none.  At  first 
Eddie  felt  very  badly,  but  after  a  while  he 
began  to  think  whether  there  was  any  way 
for  him  to  earn  something.  Across  the  half- 
graded  street  from  the  little  cottage  where 
his   mother   lived  was  an  open    field,  then 


HABITS    OF   INDUSTRY.  225 

thickly  covered  with  those  large,  round, 
white  and  yellow  daisies.  These  flowers 
he  picked,  and  carried  them  to  an  herb 
store,  and  sold  them  iovfour  cents  a  pound. 
Afterwards  he  and  his  brother  Georgie 
picked  red  clover  blossoms,  and  sold  them 
at  two  cents  a  pound,  and  then  white  clover 
blossoms  at  five  cents  a  pound.  I  think  these 
two  little  boys  earned  in  a  few  weeks  more 
than  a  dollar  and  a  half  in  this  way,  which 
they  contributed  toward  buying  those  new 
books.  But  I  must  tell  you  what  one  other 
little  boy  of  about  eight  years  did.  His 
name  was  Walter.  He  wanted  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  library,  and,  as  he  could  think 
of  nothing  by  which  he  could  earn  money 
immediately,  he  invented  the  following  plan  : 
His  father  had  a  little  garden,  and  had  al- 
lowed him  to  plant  in  a  small  bed  whatever 
he  chose.  Singularly  enough  he  had  chosen 
to  plant  a  bed  of  citrons.  These  he  weeded 
15 


226  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

and  hoed,  and  watched  and  watered,  until  in 
the  fall  he  found  daily  ripening  a  goodly 
number  of  nice  citrons.  AVhen  they  were 
fully  ripe  he  inquired  at  the  stores  the  price 
of  citrons,  and  then,  placing  his  price  some- 
what lower  than  the  market  value,  he  carried 
his  citrons  about  the  neighborhood  upon  his 
little  cart,  and  sold  them  all,  and  handed  in 
the  money  to  the  Sunday  school  for  the 
library  fund.  If  I  remember  correctly,  he 
secured  something  over  two  dollars. 

I  have  indicated  to  you  by  these  stories 
some  ways  in  which  boys  have  earned  money 
for  good  purposes.  Though  you  may  not, 
and  probably  could  not,  do  exacthj  the  same 
thing,  yet  as  these  boys  invented  ways  of 
doing  what  they  desired  to  do,  so  I  think,  if 
you  have  the  desire,  you  also  will  invent  a 
way  of  accomplishing  your  desire.  "  Where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way."  "  Find  a  way 
or  make  a  way." 


A   LESSON   rR031   HISTORY.  227 


XXIV. 

A  LESSON  FROM  HISTOllY. 

T?EW  boys  in  school  appear  to  be  fond  of 
the  study  of  history.  They  not  infre- 
quently call  it  dull  and  dry.  Sometimes 
they  are  inclined  to  get  excused  from  the 
study.  A  few  years  later  in  life,  when  they 
have  a  mare  mature  judgment,  they  usually 
form  a  much  higher  idea  of  its  value,  and 
find  it  more  interesting  and  instructive. 
But  should  the  principle  of  elective  studies, 
now  so  popular  at  Harvard,  reach  the  upper 
classes  in  the  grammar  schools,  history,  it  is 
to  be  feared,  would  soon  be  left  in  a  hope- 
less minority. 

When,   however,   boys    are    permitted   to 
omit  the  study  of  history,  and  pay  l)ut  little 


228  TALKS   WITH   MY  BOYS. 

attention  to  the  subject  till  they  are  past 
sixteen  or  eighteen  years  of  age,  they  sel- 
dom reco\er  what  they  have  lost.  During 
all  their  subsequent  lives  they  never  cease  to 
regret  that  they  neglected  the  opportunity, 
when  their  memories  were  fresh  and  active, 
to  become  familiar  with  the  general  outlines 
and  the  main  facts  of  history.  There  is  "  no 
lamp  by  which  our  feet  may  be  guided  but 
the  lamp  of  experience."  "What  man  has 
done,  man  may  do."  Yet  the  experience  of 
the  human  race  is  what  we  call  history. 
"  What  man  has  done "  is  recorded  on  the 
pages  of  history. 

Let  me  this  morning  present  to  you  some 
unique  illustrations  from  history,  somewhat 
out  of  the  ordinary  channels  of  thought,  it 
may  be,  but  which  I  hope  will  show  not 
only  that  all  the  world  are  wonderfully  de- 
pendent upon  one  another,  but  also  that 
what  may  seem  to  be  remote  and  inconse- 


A   LESSON   FROM   HISTORY.  229 

qiiential  are  in  reality  more  clearly  con- 
nected to  us  and  to  our  interests  than  at  first 
would  appear. 

Every  one  knows  how  impossible  it  is  for 
any  one,  at  this  day  of  general  travel  and 
intercommunication  between  all  nations,  to 
hide  himself  and  remain  unknown  in  any  part 
of  the  world.  A  man  having  committed  a 
crime  in  Boston  may  seek  concealment  in  a 
remote  state  of  South  America ;  but  it  will 
not  be  long  before  some  one  who  formerly 
knew  him  will  step  in,  recognize  him,  and 
call  him  by  his  former  name.  Bank  officers 
are  said  to  go  to  Canada,  sometimes,  but  it 
is  not  because  they  can  be  hidden  there. 
Mutineers  upon  the  high  seas  can  now  find 
no  land  under  the  sun  whither  they  can  flee 
and  be  unknown. 

Neither  could  one  escape  from  his  friends, 
if,  for  any  reason,  he  should  conceive  the 
desire  to  do  so.  .  Even  the  boys  from  tMs 


230  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

school  can  scarcely  find  a  spot  where  they 
will  not  meet  some  former  schoolmate. 
Last  summer  a  graduate  of  this  school  was 
spending  a  day  in  Kansas  City,  and  while 
there  he  met  four  other  graduates,  all  of 
whom  were  living  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 

But  not  only  are  all  countries  interlocked 
and  intertwined  one  with  another,  so  that  it 
is  important  to  be  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  present  condition  of  the  whole 
world,  but  the  ages  are  more  closely  con- 
nected than  one  might  suppose,  which  makes 
a  knowledge  of  all  races  and  all  times  a  ne- 
cessity, in  order  to  do  business  the  most 
successfully. 

"  Light  Horse  Harry  "  Lee  was  a  conspic- 
uous figure  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
that  was  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Yet  his  own  son  was  the  most  prominent 
officer  in  the  army  of  the  South,  during  the 
late  Rebellion.     But  to  a  casual  observei', 


A  LESSON  FKOM  HISTORY.      231 

who  has  not  made  a  close  study  of  history, 
the  period  of  the  Eevolution  would  appear  to 
be  several  generations  back  of  Secession  and 
the  Confederacy. 

It  frequently  seems,  to  one  who  has  not 
carefully  studied  and  reflected  upon  the  his- 
tory of  this  country,  that  the  age  of  the  Pil- 
grims and  the  Puritans,  the  first  settlers  in 
New  England,  was  generations  and  genera- 
tions ago.  My  great-grandfather's  great- 
grandfather was  contemporary  with  Roger 
Williams,  and  Miles  Standish,  and  Governor 
Winthrop  ;  yet  it  is  true,  in  a  certain  sense, 
that  there  is  but  one  link  between  our  time 
and  the  period  of  those  old  pioneers.  A 
person  born,  say  in  1720,  could  have  con- 
versed with  old  people  who  had  been  in  their 
younger  days  acquainted  with  the  early  set- 
tlers, and  they  in  turn,  living  to  be  eighty 
or  ninety  years  of  age,  would  reach  down 
into  the  period  of  those  who,  born  perhaps 


232  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

in  1800  or  1810,  are  still  living  to  tell  us  the 
anecdotes  of  their  childhood.  In  1872  I 
heard  an  aged  lady,  then  a  hundred  years 
old,  tell  what  happened  "  the  year  the  war 
broke  out";  that  is,  in  1775,  ninety-seven 
years  before.  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  but 
a  single  generation  stands  between  the  first 
settlers  of  New  England  and  the  people  of 
today.  So,  reckoning  the  space  of  one  life 
as  eighty  years,  we  find  that  there  are  but 
three  links  between  our  period  and  the  time 
of  Columbus  and  Luther,  Henry  VIII.  and 
Tyndale,  and  the  introduction  of  knives  and 
forks  for  table  use. 

If  this  is  not  at  first  apparent,  I  pray  3^ou 
to  reflect  that  the  age  of  which  I  speak  was 
substantially  four  centuries  ago ;  that  it 
reached  forward  eighty  years ;  that  our 
own  age  may  be  regarded  as  reaching  back- 
ward eighty  years  ;  and  that  two  periods  of 
eighty  years  taken  from  four  hundred,  leave 


A   LESSON   FROM   HISTORY.  233 

but  three  periods  of  eighty  years  between 
them. 

And  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era,  when  Christ  and  CaBsar,  Virgil  and 
Pompey,  Cicero  and  Josephus,  and  Paul  and 
Peter  were  fulfilling  their  earthly  destiny, 
but  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  of  our  life- 
time periods  of  eighty  years  have  intervened, 
and  seventy-five  such  ages  will  carry  us  back 
to  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  we  can  interview 
our  first  parents,  Adam  and  Eve. 

I  do  not  mean  to  be  understood  that  the 
persons  just  named  as  belonging  to  the  time 
of  Christ  were  exactly  contemporary  with 
each  other,  but  only  as  living  near  the  same 
period.  Cicero  and  Virgil  were  a  generation 
before  Christ,  and  Paul  and  Josephus  came 
into  the  generation  following. 

An  old  tradition  has  come  down  to  us  to 
the  effect  that  Paul,  on  his  way  to  Rome, 
when  he  had  appealed  to  Csesar,  being  de- 


234  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 

layed  at  Puteoli,  went  up  to  the  hill  Pan- 
silipo  to  shed  a  tear  over  the  tomb  of  Virgil, 
and  thought  how  much  he  might  have  made 
of  that  noble  soul  if  he  had  but  found 
him  still  on  earth.  An  old  Latin  hymn 
is  still  extant,  which  tells  the  incident  iu 
this  way :  — 

"  Ad  Maronis  mausoleum 
Ductus,  fudit  super  eum 
Piae  rorem  lacrymae : 
Quantum,  dixit,  te  lecissem, 
Si  te  vivum  invenissem, 
Poetarum  maximel  " 

The  condensed  phraseology  of  the  verse 
scarce  admits  a  literal  translation  of  its 
touchins:  thought,  but  I  find  in  an  old  book 
a  free  paraphrase,  which  will  give  quite  a 
clear  idea  of  the  force  of  the  original :  — 

"  On  his  way  to  Nero's  Court, 
When  at  Puteoli's  port. 
At  the  tomb  where  Virgil  slept, 
Paul,  in  thoughtful  sadness,  wepL; 


A   LESSON  FROM   HISTORY.  235 

Wept,  that  lie  of  woi'ld-wide  fame 
Should  have  died  ere  Jesus  camel 
In  his  musings,  unexpressed, 
This  the  thought  that  swelled  his  breast: 
*  Oh  I  that  I  had  found  thee  living 
In  the  light  the  Cross  is  giving; 
Could  have  seen  thee,  from  above 
Taught  to  know  a  Saviour's  love ; 
Then,  with  love  to  Christ  supreme, 
Thine  had  been  a  nobler  theme; 
And  thy  harp,  in  loftiest  lays, 
Down  the  ages  rolled  His  praise ! ' 


Thoughtful  and  sad,  Paul  from   the  hill  went 

down 
To  Rome,  to  prison,  to  a  heavenly  crown." 

We  must  confess  that  it  is  not  common 
thus  to  couple  the  names  of  Virgil  and  Paul 
together,  as  though  there  was  a  bond  of 
sympathy  between  them,  but  Paul  would 
adopt  the  sentiment  of  that  famous  Latin 
motto,  — 

"  Humani  nihil  alienum.''^ 

One  of  the  most  striking  pictures  presented 


236  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOYS. 

by  that  gifted  author,  J.  T.  Headley,  in  his 
"Sacred  Mountains,"  is  the  contrast  that  he 
makes  in  regard  to  Mount  Tabor.  He  speaks 
of  the  "contrasts  of  earth,"  and  likens  our 
workl  to  a  "middle  spot  between  heaven  and 
hell,"  which  partakes  of  the  character  of 
both.  "The  glory  from  the  one  and  the 
midnight  shades  from  the  other  meet  along 
its  bosom,  and  the  song  of  angels  and  the 
shriek  of  fiends  go  up  from  the  same  spot. 
Noonday  and  midnight  are  not  more  opposite 
than  the  scenes  that  are  constantly  passing 
before  our  eyes."  "Truth  and  falsehood  walk 
side  by  side  through  our  streets,  and  vice 
and  virtue  meet  and  pass  every  hour  of  the 
day." 

"  It  was  a  bright  spring  morning.  A  form 
was  seen  standino;  on  Mount  Tabor.  He  sat 
on  his  steed  in  the  clear  sunlight,  his  eye 
resting  on  a  scene  in  the  vale  below,  which 
was  sublime  and  appalling  enough  to  quicken 


A   LESSON   FROM   HISTORY.  237 

the  pulsations  of  the  calmest  heart.  That 
form  was  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  the  scene 
before  him  the  fierce  and  terrible  battle  of 
Mount  Tabor." 

"Amid  the  twenty-seven  thousand  Turks 
that  crowded  the  plain  and-  enveloped  their 
enemy  like  a  cloud,  and  amid  the  incessant 
discharge  of  artillery  and  musketry,  Napo- 
leon could  tell  where  his  own  brave  troops 
were  struggling  only  by  the  steady,  simul- 
taneous volleys,  which  showed  how  discipline 
was  contending  with  the  wild  valor  of  over- 
powering  numbers."  "  Thrown  into  confusion 
and  trampled  under  foot,  that  mighty  army 
rolled  turbulently  back  toward  the  Jordan, 
where  Murat  was  anxiously  waiting  to  min- 
gle in  the  fight.  Dashing  with  his  cavalry 
among  the  disordered  ranks,  he  sabered  them 
down  without  mercy,  and  raged  like  a  lion 
amid  his  prey.  This  chivalric  and  romantic 
warrior  declared  that  the   remembrance   of 


238  TALKS   WITH  MY  BOTS. 

the  scenes  that  once  transpired  on  ]\Iount 
Tabor,  and  on  those  thrice-consecrated  spots, 
came  to  him  in  the  hottest  of  the  fight  and 
nerved  him  with  tenfold  courage ."  "  Roll  back 
the  centuries,  and  again  view  that  hill.  The 
day  is  bright  and  beautiful  as  then,  and  the 
same  rich,  Oriental  landscape  is  smiling  in 
the  light  of  the  same  sun.  There  is  Mount 
Tabor,  the  same  on  which  Bonaparte  stood 
with  his  cannon ;  and  the  same  beautiful 
plain,  where  rolled  the  smoke  of  battle,  and 
where  struggled  thirty  thousand  men  in  mor- 
tal combat.  But  how  different  is  the  scene 
that  is  passing  there !  The  Son  of  God 
stands  on  that  height  and  casts  bis  eye  over 
the  quiet  valley  through  which  Jordan  winds 
its  silver  current.  Three  friends  are  beside 
him.  Far  away  to  the  northwest  shines  the 
blue  Mediterranean ;  all  around  is  the  great 
plain  of  Esdrelon  and  Galilee ;  eastward, 
the  lake  of  Tiberias  dots  the  landscape,  while 


A   LESSON  FROM   HISTORY.  239 

Mount  Carmcl  lifts  its  naked  summit  in  the 
distance.  But  the  glorious  landscape  at  their 
feet  is  forgotten  in  a  sublimer  scene  that  is 
passing  before  them.  The  Son  of  Mary  — 
the  carpenter  of  Nazareth — begins  to  change 
before  their  eyes.  Heaven  has  poured  its 
brightness  over  that  consecrated  spot,  and 
on  the  beams  of  light  which  glitter  there, 
Moses  and  Elias  have  descended,  and, 
wrapped  in  the  same  shining  vestments, 
stand  beside  him." 

Then  follows  a  minute  and  wonderfully 
graphic  picture  of  the  transfiguration,  end- 
ing with  the  mysterious  voice  in  the  words, 
"This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased  ;    hear  ye  him." 

"  Can  there  be  a  stranger  contrast  than  the 
battle  and  the  transfiguration  upon  INIount 
Tabor  ?  One  shudders  to  think  of  Bonaparte 
and  the  Son  of  God  on  the  same  mountain  ; 
one  with  his  wasting  cannon  by  his  side,  and 


240  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

the  other  with  Moses   and  Elias  jast  from 
Heaven." 

But  you  say  the  two  scenes  are  separated 
by  eighteen  centuries.  What  are  eighteen 
centuries  but  a  moment  of  time  only  ?  Time 
is  measured  not  by  seconds  and  centuries, 
but  by  deeds.  Actions  are  the  hour-strokes, 
and  annual  marks,  and  century  records  of  the 
world.  Cause  and  effect  and  motives  are  the 
criteria  by  which  the  deeds  of  this  world  are 
to  be  judged.  "  Time's  effacing  fingers  "  act 
only  on  the  physical  world,  and  not  on  the 
mental  and  moral  world.  In  that  realm  time 
is  nothing.  It  can  neither  add  to  nor  take 
from  the  actions  of  our  race ;  it  is  by  them 
that  individuals  and  nations  are  to  be  judged. 
What  study,  then,  can  be  more  vital  in  in- 
terest, more  attractive  in  material,  or  more 
fruitful  in  utility  than  the  study  of  the  annals 
of  mankind  ?  It  puts  vitality  and  an  enthu- 
siastic glow  of  transfigured  interest  and  mean- 


A   LESSON   FROM   HISTORY.  241 

ing  into  all  subjects  which  come  before  the 
mind  for  consideration.  Have  pity  for  the 
boor  of  whom  Wordsworth  says, — 

"  A  primrose  by  the  river's  brim 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him, 
And  it  was  nothing  more." 

But  fill  your  own  souls  with  such  a  knowl- 
edge of  this  world's  contents  that  your  vision 
can  see  more  than  the  "yellow  primrose," 
when  you  look  upon  the  little  modest  flower 
"  by  the  river's  brim."  And  remember  that 
the  world's  knowledge  is  divided  into  two 
grand  divisions,  neither  of  which  can  be 
omitted  without  serious  loss, — the  realm  of 
nature  and  the  realm  of  humanity.  Were 
either  to  be  slighted,  it  surely  should  not  be 
humanity,  or  the  history  of  mankind.  Na- 
ture itself  would  be  sorely  deficient  and  in- 
complete without  the  crowning  work  of  the 
creation, — man.  If  then  we  can  "look 
through  nature  up  to  nature's  God,"  surely 

16 


242  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

much  more  and  with  far  greater  ease  may  we 
in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  its  aspira- 
tions, its  failures,  and  its  triumphs,  see  the 
ladder  that  Jacob  saw,  which  reaches  upward 
to  the  celestial  land  where  God  abides,  and 
where  his  throne  is  fixed. 


WHAT  GEOMETRY  WILL  DO  FOR  A  BOY.      243 


XXV. 

WHAT  GEOMETKY  WILL  DO  FOR  A  BOY. — 
HOW  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  BECAME  AN 
EXPERT   REASONER. 

\  OW,  boys,  let  us  have  a  little  talk  about 
geometry.  You  know  it  has  been  a 
famous  study  for  boys  for  many  ages.  Euclid 
was  an  old  Egyptian,  who  lived  about  three 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  His  treatise 
on  geometry  has  been  the  foundation  for  all 
modern  works  upon  the  subject.  Plato,  who 
lived  a  century  earlier,  founded  a  noted  acad- 
emy at  Athens,  and  it  is  related  that  over  its 
entrance  he  placed  this  celebrated  inscription, 
Let  no  one  ignorant  of  geometry  enter  here. 

This  branch  has  been  considered  an  impor- 
tant part  of  a  good  education  for  two  thou- 
sand years.     Yet  I  hear  many  boys  in  these 


244  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

days  saying,  "  I  don't  like  geometry.  I 
wonder  what  good  it  will  do  me." 

I  once  heard  a  very  interesting  story  about 
Abraham  Lincoln,  which  may  help  you  to 
understand  the  "good."  Before  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  candidate  for  President,  he  made  a  tour 
through  New  England,  and  lectured  in  many 
cities  and  towns.  Among  other  places,  he 
spoke  in  Norwich,  Ct.  A  gentleman  who 
heard  him,  and  was  struck  with  his  remark- 
able logical  power,  rode  the  next  day  in  the 
cars  with  Mr.  Lincoln  to  New  Haven.  Dur- 
ing the  ride,  the  following  conversation  took 
place  :  — 

"Mr.  Lincoln,  I  was  delighted  with  your 
lecture  last  eveninsj." 

"  Oh,  thank  you ;  but  that  was  not  much 
of  a  lecture  ;  I  can  do  better  than  that." 

"I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  Mr.  Lincoln;  for 
whoever  can  do  so  well,  must  inevitably  be 
able  to  do  better." 


WHAT  GEOMETRY  WILL  DO  FOR  A  BOY.      245 

"Well,  well,  you  are  a  good  reasoner, 
are  n't  you?     That  is  cute." 

"  But  that  reminds  me,"  continued  the  gen- 
tleman, "  to  ask  how  you  acquired^your  won- 
derful logical  power.  I  have  heard  that  you 
are  entirely  self-educated,  and  it  is  seldom 
that  I  find  a  self-educated  man  who  has  a 
good  system  of  logic  in  his  reasoning.  How 
did  you  acquire  such  an  acute  power  of 
analysis  ?  " 

"Well,  Mr.  G.,  I  will  tell  you.  It  was 
my  terrible  discouragement  which  did  that 
for  me." 

"  Your  discouragement :  what  do  you 
mean  ?  " 

"You  see,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln  in  reply, 
"when  I  was  a  young  man  I  went  into  an 
ojQSce  to  study  law.  Well,  after  a  little 
while  I  saw  that  a  lawyer's  business  was 
largely  to  prove  things.  And  I  said  to 
myself,  'Lincoln,  when  is  a  thing  proved?' 


246  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS, 

That  was  a  poser.  I  could  not  answer  the 
question.  What  constitutes  proof  f  Not  evi- 
dence ;  that  was  not  the  point.  There  may 
be  evidence  enough,  but  wherein  consists  the 
prooff 

"  You  remember  the  old  story  of  the  Ger- 
man, who  was  tried  for  some  crime,  and  they 
brought  half  a  dozen  respectable  men  who 
swore  that  they  saw  the  prisoner  commit  the 
crime.  '  Veil,'  he  replies,  '  vat  of  dot?  Six 
men  schwears  dot  dey  saw  me  do  it.  I 
prings  more  nor  two  tozen  goot  men  who 
schwears  dey  did  not  see  me  do  it.' 

"  So,  wherein  is  the  proof?  I  groaned  over 
the  question,  and  finally  said  to  myself, 
'Ah,  Lincoln,  you  can't  tell.'  Then  I 
thought,  '  What  use  is  it  for  me  to  be  in 
a  law  office  if  I  can't  tell  when  a  thing  is 
proved?'  So  I  gave  it  up  and  left  the  office, 
and  went  back  home,  over  in  Kentucky." 

"  So  you  gave  up  the  law? " 


WHAT  GEOMETRY  WILL  DO  FOR  A  BOY.      247 

"Oh,  Mr.  G.,  don't  jump  at  your  conclu- 
sions; that  is  n't  logical.  But  really  I  did 
give  up  the  law,  and  I  thought  I  should  never 
go  back  to  it.  This  was  in  the  fall  of  the 
year.  Soon  after  I  returned  to  the  old  log- 
cabin,  I  fell  in  with  a  copy  of  Euclid.  I  had 
not  the  slightest  notion  what  Euclid  was,  and 
I  thought  I  would  find  out.  I  found  out ;  but 
it  was  no  easy  job.  I  looked  into  the  book 
and  found  it  was  all  about  lines,  angles,  sur- 
faces, and  solids  ;  but  I  could  not  understand 
it  at  all.  I  therefore  began,  very  deliber- 
ately, at  the  beginning ;  I  learned  the  defini- 
tions and  axioms ;  I  demonstrated  the  first 
proposition ;  I  said,  that  is  simple  enough ; 
I  went  on  to  the  next  and  the  next ;  and 
before  spring  I  had  gone  through  that  old 
Euclid's  geometry,  and  could  demonstrate 
every  proposition  like  a  book. 

"I  knew  it  all  from  beo^inniuor  to  end. 
You  could  not  stick  me  on  the  hardest  of 


248  TALKS    WITH    MY   BOYS. 

them.  Then,  in  the  spring,  when  I  had  got 
through  with  it,  I  said  to  myself  one  day, 
*Ah,  do  you  know  now  when  a  thing  is 
proved?'  And  I  answered  right  out  loud, 
'  Yes,  sir,  I  do.'  '  Then  you  may  go  back  to 
the  law  shop  ' ;  and  I  went." 

"  Thank,  you,  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  that  story. 
You  have  answered  my  question.  I  see  now 
where  you  found  your  logical  acumen ;  you 
dug  it  out  of  that  geometry." 

"Yes,  I  did;  often ijy  the  light  of  pitch- 
pine  knots ;  but  I  got  it.  Nothing  but 
geometry  will  teach  you  the  power  of  ab- 
stract reasoning.  Only  that  will  tell  you 
when  a  thing  is  proved." 

Said  Mr.  G. ,  "  I  think  this  is  a  remarkable 
incident.  How  few  men  would  have  thought 
to  ask  themselves  the  question.  When  is  a 
thing  proved  ?  What  constitutes  proof?  And 
how  few  young  men  of  today  would  be 
able   to  master  the   whole  of  Euclid   in   a 


WHAT  GEOMETRY  WILL  DO  FOR  A  BOY.      249 

single  winter,  without  a  teacher.  And  still 
fewer,  after  they  had  done  so  much,  would 
have  realized  and  acknowledged  what  geom- 
etry had  done  for  them ;  that  it  had  told 
them  what  proof  was." 

So,  my  young  friends,  you  may  perhaps 
see  by  this  incident  what  geometry  will  do 
for  a  boy. 


250  TALKS   WITH  MY   BOYS. 


XXVI. 

THE   FALL   OF    RICHMOND. 

Note. — Richmond  was  evacuated  by  the  Confederates 
on  Sunday,  April  2,  18G5.  The  next  day,  Monday,  the 
Union  troops  took  possession  of  the  city.  Some  time 
before,  my  pupils  had  asked  for  a  holiday  to  celebrate 
some  minor  Federal  victory.  I  told  them  that  that 
victory  hardly  warranted  a  holiday  for  the  school,  but 
when  Richmond  was  captured  they  should  celebrate  it 
by  a  holiday.  On  Monday  morning,  therefore,  April 
3,  1865,  the  boys,  en  masse,  asked  for  a  holiday.  The 
request  was  granted ;  but  as  we  were  already  assembled, 
it  was  thought  best  to  have  a  short  session,  with 
brief  exercises,  appropriate  to  the  occasion.  It  was  at 
that  time  and  under  those  circumstances  that  the  fol- 
lowing talk  was  given  to  the  boys. 

^HE  newspapers  inform  us  that  the  Federal 
army  is  now  in  possession  of  Richmond, 
the  capitol  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America.  Practically  this  must  prove  to  be 
the  beo-iunino;  of  the  end.     The  close  of  this 


THE   FALL   OF   RICHMOND.  251 

civil  war  is  at  hand.  Thank  God  for  that. 
It  is  hi<2;h  time  the  fratricidal  contest  was 
terminated.  So  far  as  it  has  been  a  contest 
between  free  labor  and  slave  labor,  the  South 
will  lose ;  for  slavery  will  not  survive  the 
overthrow  of  the  Confederacy.  And  to  a 
large  extent  slavery  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  difficulty.  Ever  since  the  beginning 
of  the  Federal  government  the  balance  of 
power  has  been  carefully  guarded  in  the 
United  States  senate.  Prior  to  1800  three 
new  states  had  been  added  to  the  original 
thirteen, — New  Hampshire,  Kentucky,  and 
Tennessee.  This  made  eight  free  states  and 
eifirht  slave  states.  Then  Ohio  and  Louis- 
iana  being  admitted  left  the  condition  the 
same,  nine  states  on  each  side.  Then  Indi- 
ana and  Mississippi  were  admitted,  then 
Illinois  and  Alabama,  then  !Maine  and  Mis- 
souri. But  not  till  after  the  vigorous  strife 
which  resulted  in  the  Missouri  Compromise. 


252  TALKS    WITH   MY    BOYS. 

Then  followed  Arkansas  and  Michigan, 
Florida  and  Iowa,  Texas  and  Wisconsin,  and 
the  spell  was  broken  in  1850  by  California 
choosing  for  herself  a  free  constitution, 
when,  from  her  latitude,  it  had  been  sup- 
posed she  would  make  a  slave  state. 

Even  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the 
conquest  and  purchase  of  Northern  Mexico, 
failed  to  help  the  slave  power.  It  was 
doomed. 

When  the  war  broke  out  four  years  ago, 
no  one  dreamed  what  was  before  this  nation. 
I  well  remember  dismissing  school  and  going 
down  to  the  wharf  to  see  the  first  Rhode 
Island  regiment  embark  upon  the  boat  that 
took  them  to  the  scene  of  conflict.  On  my 
return  a  friend  said  to  me,  "  When  do  you 
propose  to  enlist?"  I  replied,  "  Oh,  I  don't 
know,  I  think  I  shall  go  in  the  fifth  regi- 
ment." Little  did  any  one  that  day  suppose 
that  this  little  State  would  be  called  upon  to 


THE    FALL    OF    RICHMOND.  253 

send  five  regiments  into  the  field,  not  to  say 
ten  regiments  of  infantry,  a  regiment  of 
light  batteries  and  two  or  three  resfiments  of 
cavalry.  Even  Secretary  of  State  Seward 
thought  that  ninety  days  would  finish  the 
war.  But  his  former  utterance  was  the  true 
one,  when  he  characterized  the  anti-slavery 
struggle  as  "  The  irrepressible  conflict." 
Slowly  but  steadily  the  slave  power  had 
become  more  and  more  aggressive,  and  more 
and  more  determined  to  rule  the  nation  or  to 
destroy  it.  That  power  culminated  in  the 
administration  of  President  Buchanan,  and 
upon  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  the 
moment  had  come  for  the  blow  to  be  struck. 
But  the  change  of  administration  had  brought 
with  it  an  entire  change  of  policy  for  the 
nation. 

During  Mr.  Buchanan's  term,  the  mint  is- 
sued that  small  copper  cent  alloyed  with 
nickel,  with  the  hideous  looking  flying  bird 


254  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

on  one  side  of  it.  It  was  this  coin  that 
Theodore  Parker  characterized  as  follows  : 
"  The  government  has  become  so  corrupt  that 
it  has  erased  the  word  liberty  from  the  coins 
of  the  country,  taken  away  the  eagle,  the 
emblem  of  freedom,  and  substituted  instead 
thereof  an  ill-looking^  ravenous  vulture." 
But  one  of  the  first  coins  issued  by  Secre- 
tary Chase,  under  President  Lincoln,  was 
the  two-cent  piece,  which  bore  as  a  motto, 
"  III  God  we  Trust."  It  is  believed  that  this 
was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  our  land 
that  a  religious  motto  appeared  upon  any 
coin  issued  by  the  national  mint.  This 
change  seemed  to  be  an  agreeable  augury  of 
the  altered  character  of  the  nation  in  its 
aims  and  its  aspirations. 

The  war  is  now,  in  all  probability,  sub- 
stantially ended.  For  four  years  the  cry  has 
been,  "  On  to  Richmond  "  ;  but  there  seemed 
to  be   a   fatality   preventing  Union  soldiers 


THE   FALL   OF   RICHMOND.  255 

from  getting  into  that  city,  except  as  pris- 
oners of  war.  Now  that  the  capital  ol  the 
Confederacy  which  established  itself  upon  the 
corner-stone  of  human  slavery  has  fallen,  the 
army  will  not  long  withstand  the  steady 
march  of  Sherman,  and  the  heavy  poundings 
of  Grant. 

The  abolition  of  slavery,  which  was  a  war 
measure,  by  proclamation  of  the  President, 
must  be  enforced  by  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment. Surely,  the  conflict  was  "irrepres- 
sible," and  the  two  systems  of  free  labor  and 
slave  service  could  not  abide  under  one  gov- 
ernment. The  one  or  the  other  must  give 
way.  Thank  God,  it  was  not  the  former. 
Well  may  we  say  with  the  great  poet,  — 

"Let  truth  and  falsehood  grapple; 
Wlio  ever  knew  truth  put  to  the  worse 
In  fair  and  open  conflict." 

But  what  next  ?  First  a  breathing  spell ; 
then  recuperation  and   mutual    forbearance, 


256  TALKS    WITH   MY   BOYS. 

forgiveness,  and  reconciliation.  And  then, 
what?  Then  progress,  progress,  progress, 
more  rapid  than  the  nation  has  ever  yet 
seen.  The  upbuilding  of  the  impoverished 
South,  the  education  and  elevation  of  the 
freed  men,  the  introduction  of  manufacturing 
into  that  section ;  the  pushing  of  the  west- 
ern frontier  farther  and  farther  till  it  meets 
the  "  Great  South  Sea,"  and  there  the  great 
Republic  will  find  its  western  limit. 

If  this  gigantic  atternpt  to  divide  the  na- 
tion upon  lines  of  latitude,  with  the  rebel- 
lious section  upheld  by  such  a  powerful 
motive  as  the  retention  and  propagation  of 
slavery ;  if  this  great  rebellion  with  its 
immense  strength  has  failed,  we  may  well 
feel  assured  that,  hereafter,  no  attempt  will 
be  made  to  divide  the  nation  either  by  lines 
latitudinal  or  longitudinal,  and  the  prophecy 
of  that  famous  Rhode-Islander*  will  be  quite 

*  Thomas  W.  Dorr,  in  1853. 


THE    FALL    OF    EICHMOND.  257 

likely  to  prove  true,  that  the  stars  and 
stripes  will  yet  float  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  gulf  to  the  pole. 

And  now,  my  young  friends,  I  heartily 
congratulate  you  upon  your  good  fortune  in 
"  comins;  to  the  kini>:dom  at  such  a  time  as 
this  " ;  that  you  are  just  about  to  enter  the 
arena  of  active  life  at  a  time  when  the  nation 
is  evidently  establishing  itself  upon  a  firmer 
foundation  than  ever  before,  and  command- 
ing a  higher  respect  from  all  nations  than 
hitherto.  Republican  institutions  will  take 
a  new  lease  of  life,  the  speedy  downfall  of 
monarchies  and  oligarchies  may  be  pre- 
dicted, and  the  "  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  together." 

And  now  I  counsel  you  to  rise  to  the  dig- 
nity of  the  situation.  Remember  the  direc- 
tion of  the  great  apostle,  when  he  encour- 
aged his  brethren,  "Quit  you  like  men;  be 
strong."     So  I  say  to  you,   "Quit  you  like 

17 


258  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

men,  be  strong" ;  see  to  it  "  that  the  Repub- 
lic receives  no  detriment."  The  next  <j;eii- 
eration  will  see  wondrous  things ;  a  more 
rapid  development  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
by  this  nation  than  has  ever  before  beou 
witnessed  by  any  people  on  earth. 

I  hope  you  will  heartily  enjoy  your  holiday 
today,  and  may  it  be  a  day  you  will  have 
occasion  to  remember  as  long  as  you  live. 


THE    END   OF   THE   YEAR.  259 


XXVII. 

THE   END   OF   THE   YEAR. 

^''HE  year  is  drawing  to  a  close.  Our 
evenings  are  liglited  by  its  last  new 
moon.  The  morning  of  the  year,  with  its 
sweet  perfume  of  buds  and  flowers,  its 
bright  and  luxurious  foliage,  and  the  melo- 
dious songs  of  the  birds,  came  and  went  with 
its  usual  rapidity.  The  noonday  sun  of 
summer  poured  his  life-giving  beams  upon 
us  and  upon  all  nature,  but  as  quickly  was 
'past.  Autumn  then,  sable  Autumn,  with 
its  fruits  and  rich  harvests,  paid  us  a  visit, 
just  looking  in  at  our  doors,  merely  glancing 
at  us  to  see  if  the  children  had  had  their  sup- 
pers, and  the  cattle  were  well  fed  for  the 
night ;    if    the   crib   were    locked   and    the 


260  TALKS   WITH   MY   BOYS. 

rose-bush  covered  up  to  protect  it  from  the 
frost.  Autumn,  too,  is  gone,  and  now  we 
are  left  to  the  cold  mercies  of  bleak  and 
rigid  Winter.  He  is  now  here,  and  although 
occasionally  his  face  is  lighted  up  with  a 
warm  and  genial  smile,  he  cannot  avoid 
showing  the  coldness  of  his  natural  disposi- 
tion, and  the  chilling  influence  of  his  breath 
has  been  observed  on  every  hand.  We  all 
button  up  our  coats  as  if  some  thief  or  pick- 
pocket were  around,  and  we  were  afraid  of 
losing  our  pocket-books. 

But  even  cold  winter  has  its  pleasures. 
Sometimes  we  think  they  outnumber  and 
outweigh  those  of  either  of  the  other  sea- 
sons. We  have  our  Thanksgiving  just  at 
the  threshold  of  winter,  as  if  to  usher  in  the 
coming  season  of  pleasure.  Then  following 
close  upon  it  are  Christmas  and  New-Year's, 
makino^  the  trio  of  ever-to-be-remembered 
festivals  of  our  glorious  New  England  winter. 


THE    END    or    THE    YEAR.  261 

The  boys  have  the  fun  of  coasting  and 
skating,  in  which,  of  late  years,  the  girls  fre- 
quently join  ;  and  the  girls  have  the  pleasure 
of  parties  and  social  gatherings,  to  which,  of 
course,  the  boys  are  invited ;  the  men  have 
their  daily  papers,  with  the  proceedings  of 
Congress,  often  exciting  if  not  always  ele- 
vating and  beneficial,  and  promising  a  full 
share  of  interest  to  all  parties  the  present 
season. 

The  winter  schools,  with  all  their  excite- 
ments, and  pleasures,  and  profit,  flourish  at 
this  period ;  the  lectures,  the  libraries,  and 
last,  but  not  least,  the  periodical  literature, 
including  the  educational  journals.  In  fact, 
we  may  say,  like  the  people  of  California, 
we  have  but  two  seasons ;  not,  however, 
like  theirs,  the  wet  and  the  dry,  but  the 
reading  and  the  labor  season. 

Now,  what  I  wish  to  say,  although  I 
have  been  a  long  time  getting  at  it,  is  that 


262  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

I  wish  you  all  a  merry  "Merry  Christ- 
mas," and  a  hearty  "  Happy  New  Year." 
"  Christmas  is  coming,"  and  then,  before  we 
fairly  wake  up  to  the  fact  that  it  has  come 
ajid  gone,  we  hear  each  happy  boy  calling 
out  to  us,  "A  happy  New  Year." 

Let  the  year  close  with  thankfulness  for 
its  unnumbered  blessings,  with  regrets  for 
its  many  shortcomings,  with  hearty  and 
strong  resolutions  for  better  things  during 
the  New  Year ;  and  then  let  us  carry  out  all 
our  good  resolutions. 

I  have  laid  away  in  one  of  the  drawers  of 
my  memory,  bright  recollections  of  the 
"Coronation  of  Winter,"  which  came  at 
Christmas  and  lasted  till  the  morning  of  the 
New  Year.  It  was  a  sight  never  to  be  lost 
from  one's  memory. 

The  old  elms  were  bowed  with  the  weight 
of  the  silver  sheen,  all  covered  with  sparkling 
gems,  swords,  and  spears,  and  swaying  seep- 


THE   END   OF   THE   YEAR.  263 

ters,  fantastic  shapes,  and  rainbow  hues.  That 
brilliant  scene,  with  tree  and  shrub  and  house 
and  fence  and  everything  within  sight  cov- 
ered with  ice,  suggested  the  following  lines  : 

A  CHEISTMAS  SCENE. 

All  day  the  air  was  keen  and  sharp  and  cold; 
All  night  the  rain  came  rattling  on  the  roof, 
And  on  the  trees  and  on  the  frozen  gro-und; 
And  wheresoe'er  it  touched,  't  was  frozen  fast. 
The  morning  dawned!  the  clouds  had  passed  away; 
The  sun  came  forth  and  shone  with  dazzling  light, 
When  all  around,  both  near  and  far  away, 
One  saw,  in  truth,  a  brilliant,  beauteous  sightl 
Each  roof  was  glazed,  the  pavement  coated  o'er, 
And  every  tree  and  shrub  and  stalk  of  last  year's 

growth, 
Which  Autumn's  chilling  hand  had  naked  stripped, 
And,  unprotected,  left  to  winter's  blast. 
Was  now  well  clothed  in  sparkling  armor  bright  I 
Erom  every  roof  and  tower,  from  spire  and  dome ; 
From  every  tree,  whose  waving  branches  bent 
Beneath  the  ponderous  load  of  polished  mail; 
From  every  spire  of  grass  that  upright  stood; 


264  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

From  all  around  and  o'er  the  country  wide, 

In  rainbow  hues  the  sparkling  light  was  sent 

In  ever  varying,  ever  twinkling  rays. 

Here  brilliant  diamonds,  in  Nature's  casket  set; 

There  gleaming  swords  in  bristling  sheaths  en- 
cased. 

Until  the  whole,  so  gorgeous  and  so  bright, 

Seemed  more  like  Heaven  than  sin-stained,  fallen 
earth. 

Along  the  streets  the  crowds  are  hastening  fast, 
Or,  pausing  here  and  there  in  thoughtful  mood, 
To  indulge  the  beauty  of  th'  enchanting  scene, 
Or  comment  on  the  Avondrous,  sparkling  hues/ 

A  man  of  wealth,  in  crossing  o'er  the  street. 
Observes  the  silvery  appearance  of  the  sleet. 
And  fain  would  wish  that  all  this  icy  crest 
Were  so  much  d''argent  in  his  money  chest. 

A  misanthrope  next  passes,  on  his  way 
To  'Change,  to  while  away  the  gloomy  day; 
He  sadly  grumbles  at  "  the  sheer  disguise, 
Mere  outside  show,  to  cheat  one's  longing  eyes." 

We  next  observe,  enchanted  by  the  scene, 
A  beauteous  girl,  whose  age  is  just  sixteen. 
Who  dares  to  wish  this  gorgeous  ice  had  been 
Pearls  and  bracelets  to  deck  her  person  in. 


THE    END    OF    THE    YEAR.  205 

A  school-boy  next,  upon  his  way  to  school, 
Just  stops  and  thinks,  —  hut  not  about  his  rule,  — 
List  now!   He  says:  "•Would  all  that  icy  tree 
Were  so  much  candy,  Jim,  for  you  and  me." 

With  slow  and  pensive  pace,  a  farmer  see, 
Muttering  that  this  will  spoil  full  many  a  tree, 
Which  now  has  borne  for  more  than  twenty  years, 
His  greenings,  Baldwins,  peaches,  and  his  peai's. 

That  wretched  miser  thinks  of  naught  but  gold. 
And  clutching  in  his  hand  a  diamond,  icy  cold. 
He  almost  thinks  it 's  so  much  silver  coin. 
But  when  he  opes  his  hand,  behold,  'tis  gone. 

Now  comes  a  Christian,  hastening  up  the  street, 
On  deed  of  mercy  bent,  with  willing  feet; 
His  glistening  eye,  expressing  peace  within, 
Drinks  in  with  glowing  rapture  all  the  scene. 

'T  is  he  alone  enjoys  the  beauteous  crown 

Of  winter^  and  the  diamonds  scattered  'round; 

'T  is  he  alone  who  shows  by  deed  or  word 

He  "  looks  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God." 

Desiring  not  the  transient  wealth  of  earth. 
He  sees  around  him  more  than  silver's  worth; 
He  calls  not  so  much  beauty  "mere  disguise," 
Nor  thinks  of  "gaudy  pearls  "  to  mock  the  eyes. 


26Q  TALKS    WITH    MY    BOYS. 

No  school-boy's  foolish  wish  disturbs  his  breast; 
And  since  he  knows  "  whatever  is,  is  best.'' 
No  silly  fears  for  want  of  "next  year's  fruit  " 
Distui'bs  his  peaceful  mind,  and  makes  him  mute. 

The  wretched  miser''s  curse  affects  him  not; 
Although  he  's  rich  in  all  the  world  has  got, 
He  ever  strives  to  bless  and  honor  God, 
And  spends  his  wealth  and  life  in  doing  good. 

The  Christian  man  alone  enjoys  the  scene  1 
With  sinless  eye  and  naught  of  guile  within, 
He  thanks  his  God  for  such  a  glorious  sight, 
Ajid  prays  for  strength  to  do  his  duty  right. 


Messrs.   Roberts   Brothers    Publications. 

THE  WHAT-TO-DO  CLUB. 

A   STORY   FOR   GIRLS. 

By  Helen  Campbell. 
i6mo.     Cloth.     Price  $1.50. 


•' '  The  What-to-do  Club  '  is  an  unpretending  story.  It  introduces  us  to  a 
dozen  or  more  village  girls  of  varying  ranks.  One  has  had  superior  opportuni- 
ties;  another  exceptional  training;  two  or  three  have  been  'away  to  fchool;' 
some  are  farmers'  daughters ;  there  is  a  teacher,  two  or  three  poor  self-support- 
ers, —  in  fact,  about  such  an  assemblage  as  any  town  between  New  York  and 
Chicago  might  give  us.  But  while  there  is  a  lar,ce  enough  company  to  furnish  a 
delightful  coterie,  there  is  absolutely  no  social  life  among  them  •  .  .  Town  ard 
counlry  need  mor'  improving,  enthusiastic  work  to  redeem  them  from  barrenness 
and  indolence.  Our  girls  need  a  chance  to  do  independent  work,  to  study  prac- 
tical business,  to  fill  their  minds  with  other  thoughts  than  the  petty  doings  of 
neighbors.  A  What-to-do  Club  is  one  step  toward  higher  village  life.  It  is  one 
step  toward  disinfecting  a  neighborhood  of  the  poisonous  gossip  which  floats  like 
a  pestilence  around  localities  which  ought  to  furnish  the  most  desirable  homes  in 
our  country." —  The  Ckautauquan. 

"  'The  What-to-do  Club  '  is  a  delightful  story  for  girls,  especially  for  New 
England  girls,  by  Helen  Campbell.  The  heroine  of  the  story  is  Sybil  Waite,  the 
beautiful,  resolute,  and  devoted  daughter  of  a  broken-down  but  highly  educated 
Vermont  lawyer.  The  story  shows  how  much  it  is  possible  for  a  well-trained  and 
determined  young  woman  to  accomplish  when  she  sets  out  to  earn  her  own  living, 
or  help  others.  Sybil  begins  with  odd  jobs  of  carpentering,  and  becomes  an  artist 
in  woodwork.  She  is  first  jeered  at,  then  admired,  respected,  and  finally  loved 
by  a  worthy  man.  The  book  closes  pleasantly  with  John  claiming  Sybil  as  his 
own.  The  labors  of  Sybil  and  her  friends  and  of  the  New  Jersey  '  Busy  Bodies,' 
which  are  said  to  be  actual  facts,  ought  to  encourage  many  young  women  to  more 
successful  competition  in  the  battles  of  hfe."  —  Golden  Rule. 

"  In  the  form  of  a  story,  this  book  suggests  ways  in  which  young  women 
may  make  money  at  home,  with  practical  directions  for  so  doing.  Stories  with  a 
moral  are  not  usually  interesting,  but  this  one  is  an  exception  to  the  rule.  The 
narrative  is  lively,  the  incidents  probable  and  amusing,  the  characters  well-drawn, 
at  d  the  dialects  various  and  characteristic.  Mrs.  Campbell  is  a  natural  story- 
tel'er,  and  has  the  gift  of  making  a  tale  interesting.  Even  the  recipes  for  pickles 
and  preserves,  evaporating  fruits,  raising  poultry,  and  keeping  bees,  are  made 
poetic  and  invested  with  a  certain  ideal  glamour,  and  we  are  thrilled  and  absorbed 
by  an  array  of  figures  of  receipts  and  expenditures,  equally  with  the  changeful 
incidents  of  flirtation,  courtsliip,  and  matrimony.  Fun  and  pathos,  sense  and 
sentiment,  are  mingled  throughout,  and  the  combination  has  resulted  in  one  of 
the  brightest  stories  of  the  season."  —  M'oinaii's  Jonrttal. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers.      Mailed,  post-paid,  by  publishers, 
IIOBERTS  BROTHERS,  Boston. 


.  HALE'S  BOY  B 


STORIES  OF  War, 

Told  by  Soldiers. 

Stories  of  the  sea, 

Told  by  Sailors. 

Stories  of  adventure, 

Told  by  Advaitiirers. 

Stories  of  Discovery, 

Told  by  Discoverers. 

Stories  of  invention, 

Told  by  Inventors. 


Collected  and  edited  by  Edward  E.  Hale.      i6mo, 

cloth,  black  and  gold.     Price,  $i.co  per  volume. 

For  sale   by   all  booksellers,    or   jnailed.  post-paid.,    on 
receipt  of  price  by  the  Publishets, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers   Publications. 

TREASURE    ISLAND: 

^  ^torg  of  rtjc  <S}jaius!j  JHaim 

By    ROBERT    LOUIS    STEVENSON. 

With  Illustrations  by  F.  T.  Merrill. 

i6mo.    Cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper  covers,  50  cents. 


*'  Buried  treasure  is  one  of  the  very  foundations  of  romance.  .  .  .  This  is 
the  theory  on  which  Mr.  Stevenson  has  written  'Treasure  Island.'  Primarily 
it  is  a  book  for  boys,  with  a  boy-hero  and  a  string  of  wonderful  adventures. 
But  it  is  a  book  for  boys  which  will  be  delightful  to  all  grown  men  who  have  the 
sentiment  of  treasure-hunting  and  are  touched  with  the  true  spirit  of  the  Spanish 
Main.  Like  all  Mr.  Stevenson's  good  work,  it  is  touched  with  genius.  .It  is 
written  —  in  that  crisp,  choice,  nervous  English  of  which  he  has  the  secret  —  with 
such  a  union  of  measure  and  force  as  to  be  in  its  way  a  masterpiece  of  narrative. 
It  is  rich  in  excellent  characterization,  in  an  abundant  invention,  in  a  certain  grim 
romance,  in  a  vein  of  what  must,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  be  described  as  melo- 
drama, which  is  both  thrilling  and  peculiar.  It  is  the  work  of  one  who  knows  all 
there  is  to  be  known  about  '  Robinson  Crusoe,'  and  to  whom  Dumas  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  great  aiiiHseur ;  and  it  is  in  some  ways  the  best  thing  he  has 
produced." — London  Saturday  Review. 

"  His  story  is  skilfully  constructed,  and  related  with  untiring  vivacity  and  genuine 
dramatic  power.  It  is  calculated  to  fascinate  the  old  boy  as  well  as  the  young, 
the  reader  of  Smollett  and  Dr.  Moore  and  Marryatt  as  well  as  the  admirer  of  the 
dexterous  ingenuity  of  Poe.  It  deals  with  a  mysterious  island,  a  buried  treasure, 
the  bold  buccaneer,  and  all  the  stirring  incidents  of  a  merry  life  on  the  Main.  .  .  . 
We  can  only  add  that  we  shall  be  surprised  if  '  Treasure  Island  '  does  not  satisfy 
the  most  exacting  lover  of  perilous  adventures  and  thrilling  situations." — London 
A  cademy. 

"  Any  one  who  has  read  '  The  New  Arabian  Nights '  will  recognize  at  once 
Hit  Stevenson's  qualifications  for  telling  a  good  buccaneer  story.  Mr.  Steven- 
son's genius  is  not  wholly  unlike  that  of  Poe,  but  it  is  Poe  strongly  impregnated 
with  Marryatt.  Yet  we  doubt  if  either  of  those  writers  ever  succeeded  in  making 
a  reader  identify  himself  with  the  supposed  narrator  of  a  story,  as  he  cannot  fail 
to  do  in  the  present  case.  As  we  follow  the  narrative  of  the  boy  Jim  Hawkini' 
we  hold  our  breath  in  his  dangers,  and  breathe  again  at  his  escapea" —  Lofidoif 

A  thencEum. 

» 

Sold  by  all  Booksellers.     Mailed,  postpaid,  by  the  pub- 
Ushers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS, 

Boston,  Mass. 


BOB    BROW^ISrs   BOY-BOOK 


"Will  Bradley  and  I." 

WE     BOYS. 

Written  by  one  of  us  for  the  amusement  of  Pa's  and 
Ma's  in  general,  Aunt  Lovisa  in  particular. 

PRICE    $1.00. 


ROBERTS    BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

Boston. 


Jolly  Good  Times  at  School 


'O  -what  an  Uncle  Jerry  \  O  you  splendid  man  !  "  cried  Millie.  —  Page  137, 

ALSO,   SOME  TIMES   NOT  QUITE   SO  JOLLY. 

By   p.   THORNE.      Price  $1.25. 


ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers 


Mice  at  Play. 


■  I  pulled  it  full  of  water,  and  then  I  poked  the  pipe  end  into  her 
ear,  and  then  I  let  it  fly." 


"When  the  Cat's  away,  the  Mice  will  play."    .'^•/^ 


^' 


I 


A    STORY    FOR    THE    WHOLE    FAMILY. 


By  Neil  Forest.      Price  $1.25. 
— * — 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,   Publishers, 

Boston. 


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